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Effective guideline needed for disposing of used cooking oils: BFSA
DHAKA, Dec 12, 2020 (BSS) – Chairman of Bangladesh Food Safety
Authority (BFSA) Abdul Kayum Sarker said today a clear and effective
guideline is needed for disposing of used cooking oils to ensure food
safety as without recycling it may cause many deadly diseases.
“The government is working to promulgate policy on trans-fat and use
of edible oil in restaurants as well as raise stakeholder awareness on
the issue. So, the necessity of formulating guideline is needed for
disposing of used cooking oils as it can be used as value added
products taking the environmental aspects into account,” he said.
He made the comments while addressing as the chief guest at the
stakeholder dialogue on Policy of Developing Collection System for
Used Cooking Oil in Bangladesh, a press release said.
Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) and Muenzer Bangla
Private Limited- a subsidiary of Muenzer Bioindustrie of Europe
organised the virtual event.
Kayowm Sarker said, “We will cooperate with scientific and logistic
supports to any step of the government which has proper logical,
scientific and environment friendly methods and that will come through
a proper way,” he said.
The BFSA Chairman said that BFSA is keen to develop a strategy for
recycling of used cooking oil so that these oils can be safely used
for further value addition and safe waste disposal.
He said according to Food Safety Hygiene Regulation 2018, in
section 7(a), nobody can use any by-products of food preparation
adding that used cooking oil is a kind of waste product at restaurants
and food industries, hence it must not be applied for further use as
it violates the Food Safety (Hygiene) Regulation, 2018.
“In particular, we are interested to implement the testing methods
into our regular checks at restaurants and other food business
operators aiming to monitor the exact amount of used cooking oil as
well as other criteria,” he observed.
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“There are many health safety issues regarding the use of used
cooking oil. It can be used as value added products taking the
environmental aspects into account. There should be guideline from the
government for collecting used cooking oil and developing a clear
strategy for collecting it,” said BFSA Member Monzur Morshed Ahmed.
BUILD CEO Ferdaus Ara Begum called for initiating policy support by
the government for formal collection systems of used cooking oil in
Bangladesh. “We require a formal policy prescription from our
government to transition from existing informal channels for re-used
cooking oil towards formal channel for collection of used cooking oil
and its recycling,” she added.
Bangladesh imports over three million tonnes of edible oil while
only a negligible portion is collected as used cooking oil mostly by
informal actors that they sell back to cheaper restaurants.
Chief Scientist of Food Analysis & Research Centre for Advanced
Research of Sciences Dr. Latiful Bari gave a presentation on
“Developing Collection System for Used Cooking Oil in Bangladesh.”
He said reusing cooking oil increases the cholesterol, creates
peroxides acid, causes cancer and so on, adding that cooking oil with
high percentage of polar compounds is the prime cause for some of the
worst diseases.
Head of Corporate Communications & Public Affairs at Muenzer
Bioindustry, Austria/Europe Harald Sigl said it is indispensable to
have a clear legal regulation on the collection of used cooking oil.
“It is an urgent necessity to stop reselling used cooking oil on the
foodstuff and product market by law. So it is consequently necessary
to create a structured and also regulated collection system”, said
Sigl.
“Waste should only be disposed of by certified disposing companies.
Particularly, liquid waste may only be handled by those companies who
are able to show and prove the whole material flow and can assure that
used cooking oil is going through technical applications. This is the
only possibility to prevent this poison to go back to the food chain
again,” he added.
National Food Safety Consultant of Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) Md. Masud Alam, CEO of HIFS Food also President of
BAPA Syed Muhammad Shoaib Hasan, Joint Secretary of Commerce Md. Abdur
Rahim, Member of BFSA Monzur Morshed Ahmed, among others, addressed
the virtual dialogue.
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