Are Malaysians Slowly But Surely Being Poisoned To Death?

It seems that for many years now, grocery stores and even super and hyper markets have been selling reprocessed used cooking oil in 1kg packets.

The Star 13 December 2011

Apparently, used cooking oil is bought from the kitchens of restaurants and hotels and supposed to be turned into bio diesel. But unscrupulous manufacturers reprocess and repackage the used oil as cooking oil for resale.

The 1kg packet reprocessed used cooking oil is popular with households, especially the poorer ones, because it is cheap.

But it seems that many restaurants also use the reprocessed used cooking oil in their business. This is scary because Malaysians like to eat out a lot. And we also love goreng pisang ( banana fritters) and anything fired.

According to the Malaysian Association of Standards Users, tests of 19 brands sold at grocery stores and supermarkets showed the oil to be unsafe for use.

Tests showed that the polar compounds found in 73 samples ranged from 28.4% to 70.8%, far exceeding the cap of 25% of the European Union or the 27% of Australia.

The National Poison Centre consultant Dr T. Jayabalan was quoted by the Star newspaper to have said : "If used repeatedly the oil can cause hypertension, affect the liver and may in the long run lead to cancer"

What is even mare scary is that we do not have any law to deal with the matter.  The Malaysian Food Act 1983 does not contain a standard to test polar compounds in cooking oil. It effectively means that no action can be taken against the unscrupulous manufacturers of reprocessed used cooking oil.

Is the Malaysian government remiss in this matter? You tell me.