<<Print>>

The FDA says the human body system cannot get rid off Palm Oil containing Sudan IV thus consuming such oil even once can cause grave health problems including cancer.

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) is warning against the consumption of palm oil sold in markets across the country. The Authority has currently heightened its market surveillance after discovering oil samples picked from ten markets in the Greater Accra Region contained highly dangerous textile dye which causes cancer.

The Food and Drugs Authority, FDA, in June began investigation into an alert by the Tower Hamlets Council of the United Kingdom that palm oil purported to have been exported from Ghana to that country contains cancer causing agent - Sudan IV Dye.

The UK’s local authority advised residents and businesses there to avoid the contaminated Palm Oil on sale in the region, bearing the brand name Fovitor Dzomi Palm Oil.

According to the Food Safety Regulations Report of 1995, Sudan IV has been declared unsafe and an illegal food additive. The Public Affairs Director at the FDA James Lartey explained that if pure palm oil stains a white cloth it can be washed with detergent. But oil containing the dye can never be washed clean with a detergent, he said.

“It tells you a lot about what it does to our system when we take this palm oil” he expressed grave concern. James Lartey says palm oil laced with sudan IV is so rampant on Ghana’s market that there is "no perfect assurance" that any source is safe.

Several drums of Palm oil impounded during a dawn raid last week Tuesday were tested and “all contained Sudan IV”. Four vendors who were arrested revealed that they got the dye from Nigeria and had no idea it is poisonous.

They explained the rationale behind the use of the cancerous substance

“When consumers come, consumers demand that they want oil that is very red” James Lartey retold the vendors explanation. Palm oil is used in preparing a major Ghanaian delicacy, beans stew and rip plantain also known as 'Red red'. The food is often a lunch-time option for many in the working class. Palm oil is also used to prepare stew.

Meanwhile the FDA says it is targeting the main supplies of palm oil to the markets to stop any further sale of the substance if it is found to contain Sudan IV.

It is also targeting distributors and retailers, FDA maintained. But the FDA is hampered by the absence of technology that can allow on-the-spot testing to determine if a palm oil source is contaminated.

“We have to bring the samples to a lab to determine if it contains Sudan IV” he told Joy FM Tuesday.

Despite the threat to public health, James Lartey was at pains to recommend ways to avoid buying poisonous palm oil. He settled on the option that consumers should only buy from vendors they can trust.

He says consumers can ask vendors if the Palm oil they are selling contained Sudan IV before buying. But with a sense of resignation, he confessed that there was no “perfect assurance” from any source of the palm oil.

Meanwhile, Former Director General of Ghana Health, Dr. Elias Sore Service calls for a ban on the sale of Palm Oil on Ghanaian market.

According to him, there should have been a ban on the sale of palm oil after the FDA’s checks.

“The first thing the FDA should have done was to destroy the unwholesome oil to protect public safety,” he said.