Beware of polluted coconut oil barrels – CAA

by Carol Aloysius

The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) has asked wholesale dealers to refrain from using empty barrels to store coconut oil and other edible oils, unless they are washed thoroughly to eliminate the harmful chemicals.

“We recently found over eighty 200-litre barrels which had been used earlier to store toxic chemicals and later used to store coconut oil without being washed.

This is a serious offence as it poses a grave health risk,” Deputy Director General CAA, Asela B. Bandara told the Sunday Observer.

He said that these large barrels were usually imported for industrial purposes and could, therefore, contain toxic chemicals. “Traders buy the barrels in bulk from factories to refill them with various edible oils to be sent to other wholesesale merchants, who buy them at rates lower than the normal market price”, he said.

Many of the contaminated coconut oil barrels were sent to areas outside the city of Colombo. “We have detected such barrels in Jaffna and Vavuniya and more raids are continuing,“ Bandara said, adding that a Pettah merchant had admitted the offence.

“The public must desist from buying any edible oil from an unknown manufacturer. Check the labels and see if they carry the details of the name, address and contact number of the manufacturer”, he said.