Kerala - Kochi   

It is palmolein, says report

KOCHI: In a twist to the case of transport of “palm oil” on railway wagons to the city, a preliminary report from the Regional Analytical Laboratory, Kakkanad, on Wednesday suggested that the product was not palm oil, but palmolein.

(Palm oil is derived from the flesh of the oil palm fruit. Palmolein is the liquid fraction obtained by fractionation of palm oil. Palmolein is costlier).

Three samples of the product were sent to the lab on Tuesday for quality test.

However, 140 invoices taken into custody by the District Supply Officer from the consignee company described the product as palm oil, District Collector A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish told presspersons.

He said the company needed to explain this variation, and called for an extensive investigation.

The invoices showed that the “palm oil” was loaded into lorries from a storage point in Uthukottai taluk in Thiruvalloor district of Tamil Nadu. Whether such a storage point existed needed to be investigated, he said.

The quality of the product can be assessed based on the final lab report, which is expected in two days, the Collector said.

Till then, the product will not be allowed to be sold in the market or moved from the storage tanks at the Cochin Port Trust, he said.

Mr. Hanish will recommend to the State government holding of a high-level inquiry to locate the place of origin of the product.

The Civil Supplies and the Health departments and the Commercial Taxes (Intelligence) wing have investigated the case. The objective is to collect as much information as possible till the launch of the high-level inquiry, the Collector said.

He said the history of the consignee company and its previous transactions had been brought under the scanner.

An inquiry was needed to ascertain whether the product originated in Tamil Nadu or was imported. The inquiry could not be carried out within his authority, and hence, the recommendation for a high-level inquiry was made, he said.

He put to rest safety concerns over transport of edible oil in wagons used for transporting petroleum products. Southern Railway had said that there was no scope for such an apprehension, as the wagons were thoroughly cleaned before loading vegetable oil.

The District Supply Officer submitted a preliminary report to the Collector after examining the documents seized from the company.

“The Collector has asked me to carry out a more detailed inquiry, which will take time, as it will require collecting much more details,” he said.

He, however, declined to reveal anything about the detailed inquiry or the date of submitting the report.

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