Author Name: Dishit Nathwani
Address:- Teliya Mill Gate No 2, Opp Century Market, Nr Prem Darwaja, Kalupur-06, Ahmedabad
Mobile No:- +919925125251
What is Refined Oil?
Refined oils are a day to day household commodity, we cannot imagine our daily lives and food intake without oil. They are edible oils i.e. oils that are fit for human consumption. For instance, refined corn oil. Refined oils are most popularly and cheaply available on the market and thus they cater to people from all walks of life. An oil that is clarified and modified during the process of extraction by the usage of certain chemicals is known as refined oil.
Negative Perception in Popular Media
Refined cottonseed oil and other types of refined oils were claimed by many media agencies to have harmful effects on the human body. They claim that any oil which goes through a process of refining is treated with acid, purified with bases, or bleached. This purification happens to make the oils look better and more appetizing and thus more marketable. In order to enhance certain external qualities oils are also deodorized, colorized, neutralized, and filtered with harmful chemicals which render the oil unfit for consumption. These processes, claim media agencies, only make the oil look good externally at the cost of its nutritional value. Consumption of refined oil for long periods of time is also linked to an increased risk of diseases. This kind of reporting led to a significant drop in sales and consumption of refined oils.
Challenges to Negative Assumptions
Scientists and nutritionists worked on these claims and tested refined oils to see if they were fit for consumption and whether they caused any diseases. After thorough testing, lab results claimed that all the negative assumptions were unfounded. Spokespersons began to disclaim the negative myths doing rounds in popular and social media.
Accurate Information
Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) invited its scientific panel to dispel these popular myths. It has officially announced that refined oils are completely safe to use as cooking oils and that they constituted no health hazards. Doctors instruct people to reduce their intake of oily and fast food and consumption of oil which have been sitting around for a long time. Consumption of old oil is harmful since oil starts degenerating after some time. However, the claim that any kind of consumption of refined oil negatively impacts health is not supported by scientific research and facts.
Dispelling Myths
The chairman of the Scientific Panel on Oils and Fats at the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) identified that several oils used for cooking purposes had to be necessarily refined. Refining is not an inherently bad or harmful process, on the contrary, it actually makes oil safe and fit for consumption by clarifying impurities. Oils obtained directly from extraction processes and plants contain several impurities and refining removes all these impurities. These impurities give the oil a particular odor, color, taste, and composition which cannot be consumed. It is also unsafe and unhealthy. The refining process makes the oil edible and ensures a longer shelf life. The longer the shelf life of the oil is, the healthier it is for consumption since as mentioned in the article earlier, oils degenerate with time.
Additional Information
While some oils like groundnut, coconut, mustard, and sesame oil can be consumed without refining, other kinds of oils such as cottonseed, rice bran, sunflower, soy, palm, and others cannot. This is because the first kind of oils are extracted using an expelling technique and the second kind is extracted by a solvent technique. The oils extracted by solvent technique need to be necessarily defined as certain chemical solvents may persist in them, rendering them unfit for consumption.
Hope this article played its part in dispelling myths!
For more information: https://www.gulaboils.com/