Micro-nutrient limit in rice bran oil may be raised

KOLKATA: The edible oil industry’s proposal to raise the limit of unsaponified matters in rice bran oil from 3.5% to 4.5% is under active consideration of the Central Committee For Food Standards (CCFS).

CCFS has communicated to the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) that it is examining the industry's proposal which has been cleared by its sub-committee on oils and fats two months ago, a senior official of SEA said. To take a final view, CCFS has circulated the sub-committee's recommendation to its members.

The committee has been formed by the ministry of health under the chairmanship of RK Srivastava, director general of health services, to look into various issues of the edible oil industry, including the permissible limit on ’unsap’ micro-nutrients in refined rice bran oil (RBO).

If CCFS agrees with the sub-committee’s views on the matter, an amendment in the existing Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFA) needs to be carried out, he said. Under the existing rules of PFA, unsap micro-nutrients in RBO are allowed up to 3.5% of the oil.

According to industry sources, RBO producers are demanding a raise in the limit of unsap matters to arrest drainage of healthy micro-nutrients like tocopherol, tocotrienol and oryzanol from the oil. In the earlier days when RBO was chemically refined, there used to be some remnants of wax, which remained unsaponified in the oil.

But, with increasing preference for physically refined oil, RBO producers are resorting to physically refined RBO. Such oil contains a tiny amount of unsap wax, but larger amounts of other micro-nutrients like tocopherol, tocotrienol and oryzanol which have high nutritional values.

Accordingly, Japan and Thailand, the world’s largest consumers of RBO, allow unsap micro-nutrients to the extent of 5% in the oil. India produces about 1.5 lakh tonnes of refined RBO per annum out of an annual crude RBO production of around 7 lakh tonnes.