For all those who love to gorge upon fried goods-dalwadas, goats, pakoras, etc in the rainy season, be warned, as the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has a word of caution for you. Consuming edible oil that has been reheated multiple times is detrimental to health.
On Saturday, an AMC team visited an eatery in the Danapith area of the city. The eatery produces traditional Gujarati snacks.
Officials of the AMC were equipped with an instrument to measure total polar compounds in the oil used. Total polar compounds include frying time, the temperature of oil, the composition of oil, continuous or discontinuous deep frying, food moisture content, food coatins and food surface or volume. In a span of seconds, the reading on the instrument showed a value of 80% at 147 degree celsius.
Section 8 of the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) Regulations, 2011, states “TPC in unused or fresh vegetable oil or fat shall not be more than 15″%. Used vegetable oil or fat having developed TPCs more than 25% should not be used. The result was obviously exceeding the limit stated by the official standards.
Usually deep frying in oils results in oxidative and hydrolytic reactions and the formation of decomposition products. Prolonged consumption of these polar compounds aggravates the risk of heart problems and gastrointestinal disorders, shared a senior AMC health official in the food safety division.
He further explained how the moisture in the food, oxygen in the atmosphere and high temperatures when frying change the composition of the oil, which releases fatty acids, diglycerides and polymeric triglycerides. These compounds are known as Total Polar compounds. TPCs increase with the degree of unsaturation of oil. AMC officials announced that a campaign is to be undertaken against the use of high TPC oils.
In another drive between July 23 and August 5, the AMC declared 228 food samples as unsafe, and destroyed 145 kg of food, 67 liters of oils and extracts that were being used as raw material in food preparations.
The AMC took 103 new food samples, mainly from shops selling traditional snacks, milk preparations, bakery products and cereal preparations. AMC health officials shared that some of the samples appeared to be substandard upon inspection. The official; further said they would have to conduct week-long bacteriological tests to reach a conclusion.
