NEW DELHI: The country's first edible oil vending machine on the lines of milk vending outlets will be launched in West Bengal and Kolkata is likely to be the first city to get it. The food safety regulator has approved a private oil manufacturing and marketing company's plan for such an initiative."Only last week, we gave permission to a company to launch edible oils vending machines on a pilot basis in West Bengal," Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) chairman Ashish Bahuguna said on Monday. Just like milk vending machines, edible oils vending machines can be of huge benefit to the poor and rural population, who often buy non-packaged oil on daily basis.Consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan said his ministry and consumer organisations have recommended that edible oil should be available in small pouches so that every household can buy them. Bahuguna said they are in talks with different companies to push this.Last year, laboratory tests of over 1,000 samples of non-packaged edible oil from 15 states by advocacy group Consumer Voice had found how poor and rural people were facing health risk by consuming adulterated oil. It had found nearly 85% of coconut oil samples failed to meet the specified norms.Similarly, 74.1% of the cotton seed oil samples, 74% of sesame oil and 72% of mustard oil samples could not pass the purity tests. The pass percentage was better in the case of soyabean oil and sun flower oil.The samples were collected from Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The study had suggested FSSAI shoul allow introduction of small packets of 100 ml and 200 ml so that they can be within reach of all.As per law, a state government, in public interest, can allow any or all edible oils to be sold for a specific period. Adulteration in oil can cause diseases like cancer, paralysis, allergy, liver damage cardiac arrest and epidemics like dropsy. Mineral oil in some edible oils causes cancer, paralysis, allergy, liver damage. Increase in serum cholesterol are other life risk diseases.

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