Book Description
With India’s per capita edible oil consumption nearly doubling in the last decade, so has its generation of Used Cooking Oil (UCO). UCO is the leftover oil from frying and cooking that is produced both in homes and in commercial food manufacturing and service businesses. Repeated use of UCO has been linked by extensive scientific and medical research to a number of non-communicable diseases, including cancer, heart disease, and organ damage. Consumption of UCO in any form is regulated in many countries, including India, due to its adverse health impact. However, through home and commercial reuse, almost 60 percent of the UCO produced in India makes its way back into the food chain. The Repurpose Used Cooking Oil (RUCO) initiative was started by India’s food-safety regulator, the Food and Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), to combat the growing diversion of UCO back into food supply. The goal is to develop a legal and regulatory framework to shift UCO away from the food chain and towards other waste-to-wealth industries including bio-fuels, soaps, and oleo-chemicals. However, this initiative has had limited impact due to policy gaps like those that allow topping up UCO with fresh edible oils, compounded by low levels of societal awareness, poor compliance among UCO generators, and ineffective ground-level implementation by the FSSAI and state-level food safety authorities.
