edible oil retailing

clipped from www.thehindubusinessline.com So much for advancing consumer welfare! The packaging law was put together hurriedly in 1998 as a response to death of several consumers of edible oil - mustard oil suspected to be adulterated. The cause of death was diagnosed as dropsy. The event caused a furore across the country and raised serious concerns about the quality of edible oil sold in the market. A substantial part of the nearly 120 lakh tonnes of edible oil is sold in loose form, rather than in consumer packs, making adulteration easy. The dropsy deaths brought into focus the ineffective enforcement of food law and indeed, the inability of the Government to check adulteration and sale of sub-standard food products, including edible oil.