Vijayawada: The food safety authority has started using Total Polar Compound (TPC) machines to avoid reuse of cooking oils in food preparations at hotels, sweet stalls and bakeries.
Given the huge demand for sweets and food items during the Sankranti festival, teams of the state food safety authority are checking the quality of oils being used in hotels, sweet stalls, bakeries and roadside eateries.
Food safety officers across districts would visit such entities and check the quality of cooking oils. The TPC machines would identify the presence of degraded products in percentage terms. In case a machine showed the percentage of the degraded products in the oils at 25% or above, the authorities will file cases under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. The authority has, during the ongoing drive, booked only 10 cases.
Food safety commissioner J. Nivas used funds from the National Health Mission to get 42 TPC machines in addition to its 10 such machines to inspect the eateries all over the state.
Food safety officials, known for their corrupt ways, are generally inactive. They claim to have inspected nearly 200 establishments and noticed that sweet shops, hot chips centres, small hotels and roadside eateries were reusing oil for frying, and the TPC machine reading crossed 25 per cent point in several cases.
Consumption of food items prepared with such oils cause serious health hazards including cancer. Institute of Preventive Medicine director (FAC) and deputy food controller Poornachandra Rao said, “Food safety officers across the state would carry out raids on all food business establishments and book cases.”
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