LAGOS GOVERNMENT RAISES ALARM OVER CANCER-CAUSING ADULTERATED PALM OIL FLOODING THE MARKETS

The Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency (LASCOPA) has issued a red alert over the rising presence of sophisticated adulterated palm oil in markets across the state.

The warning followed a technical presentation at the Lagos State Food Safety Conference and Exhibition by Dr. Nurah Oseni, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Food Technology, Auchi Polytechnic.

LASCOPA General Manager, Afolabi Solebo, urged residents to shine their eyes and report suspected adulterated palm oil and unscrupulous traders through the agency’s official channels.

Solebo reaffirmed LASCOPA’s commitment to protecting consumers from unsafe and substandard products, adding that market surveillance had been intensified across the state. He also vowed that suspects caught would be arrested and prosecuted under relevant laws.

In her paper titled Palm oil adulteration,Emerging risks, detection strategies and regulatory control,Oseni explained that palm oil is particularly vulnerable to adulteration because of its high trading volume, consumers’ preference for deep-red colour as a sign of quality, price differences, informal market practices and the difficulty of detecting modern adulterants.

She identified the use of potentially carcinogenic Sudan and Azo dyes to enhance colour as one of the emerging risks. Other concerns include the blending of palm oil with recovered or recycled oils, including spent cooking oil, as well as multi-adulterant mixtures designed to evade basic quality checks.

Oseni advised consumers to carry out simple visual checks as an initial precaution, noting that authentic palm oil may separate into layers, with the lower layer appearing orange to red-yellowish rather than uniformly deep red.