New Delhi, Nov 20 (KNN) In order to safeguard public health, food safety and standards authority of India (FSSAI) has passed guidelines that outline the standard operating procedure (SOP) for safe handling and disposal of used cooking oil (UCO) for the benefit of consumers as well as small and big Food Business Operators (FBOs).

According to the guidelines,  food manufacturers using oil for commercial purposes cannot reuse the oil once used.

Big food businesses involved in the manufacturing of fried foods dispose of their UCO for industrial purposes (soap manufacture, etc.) but sometimes it finds way to small food vendors at cheap prices.

Cooking oil is often repeatedly used by topping it up with fresh oil.

At household level or by road-side vendors, the UCO is discarded in an environmentally hazardous manner blocking the sewerage and drainage systems.

Therefore FSSAI has notified the limit of total polar compounds to be not more than 25% beyond which the oil is unsafe for human consumption.

Some key guidelines for consumers and manufacturers were also mentioned like UCO should be consumed in a day or two. It should not be stored for longer period as the rate of deterioration is higher in used oil.

And also, discard Cooking Oil when blue-grey smoke appears or tough foam is formed or oil becomes dark and murky or the consistency of oil changes. · Discard cooking oil having developed Total Polar Compounds (TPC) of more than 25%, was mentioned in the guidelines.

UCO should be discarded in an environment friendly way preferably by providing it to the authorized UCO aggregators/collection agencies.