Consumers complain of palm, groundnut oil adulterationBy Benjamin Auta and Salaudeen Ozigi
Several consumers in Abuja have complained that palm oil and groundnut oil products that are on sale in Abuja have undergone one form of adulteration or the other.
Speaking to Abuja Trust on the issue, some residents and traders expressed that even if the cooking oils are adulterated, the middlemen should not be held responsible but the producers.
Ijeoma Okorie, a trader, told Abuja Trust that some traders stock oil in open basins adding that the sources in which they obtained the oil are probably not certain. She also added that by experience most customers prefer those palm oil that are extremely reddish in colour. “That is why some dubious traders add colours to their product,” said Ijeoma.
Ijeoma further said that experience in the processing of palm oil has given her an advantage to differentiate real oil from adulterated ones.
Another palm oil trader, Uche, told Abuja Trust that he buys his product (palm oil) from the eastern part of Nigeria and that he does not know the production process of palm oil to be able to say whether or how it is adulterated.
However, most traders maintained that groundnut oil unlike its palm counterpart is often normally processed with the aid of machines and packaged in jerry cans or other smaller containers so this made it easy for customers to detect quality very quickly.
Some residents of Abuja who spoke to Abuja Trust on the matter said that the trend had been on for quite a while now.
They said that most of the cooking oils bought have been causing severe health problems to them.
One Elijah Apeh, a resident of Idu, said that most of the groundnut oil has either been boiled with either base oil or some additives that defy understanding.
He further called on the regulatory bodies associated with fixing standards and control to check the sharp practices of these middlemen who want to exploit the ordinary man.
Another resident, Tina Oyeleke, a housewife, said that some of the cooking oils, more especially palm oil appear beautiful to the eye of unsuspecting buyers only to discover that the oil is adulterated. She said that adulterated palm oil changes colour when it is heated.
Efforts by Abuja Trust to speak to the National Agency For Food and Drug Administration and Control failed as the agency’s Public Relation Officer (PRO) was said to be away.
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