Lagos govt warns residents as cancer-causing palm oil floods markets

LAGOS—Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency, LASCOPA, yesterday, issued a red alert over what it described as a rising presence of sophisticated adulterated palm oil in markets across the state.

The warning followed a technical presentation at the Lagos State Food Safety Conference and Exhibition organized by a Senior Lecturer, Department of Food Technology, Auchi Polytechnic, Dr. Nurah Oseni.

LASCOPA, however, urged consumers to be vigilant and report suspected cases through its official channels as it intensifies market surveillance.

In his remarks, the General Manager of LASCOPA, Afolabi Solebo, reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to protecting consumers from unsafe and substandard products.

Solebo urged Lagos residents to “shine their eyes” and report suspected adulterated palm oil and unscrupulous traders through LASCOPA’s official channels, assuring that surveillance in markets across the state has been intensified.

He vowed that any suspect caught would be arrested and prosecuted accordingly under the relevant laws.

In her paper titled ‘Palm oil adulteration: Emerging risks, detection strategies and regulatory control,’ Oseni said palm oil is highly vulnerable to adulteration due to its high trading volume, consumers’ preference for deep-red colour as a sign of quality, price differentials, informal market practices and difficulty in detecting modern adulterants.

She listed emerging risks to include: the use of potentially carcinogenic Sudan and Azo dyes to enhance colour, blending with recovered or recycled oils including spent cooking oil, and multi-adulterant mixtures designed to evade basic quality checks.

She urged consumers to use simple visual checks as a first precaution, noting that authentic palm oil may separate into layers with the lower layer appearing orange to red-yellowish rather than uniformly deep red, but cautioned that visual inspection alone cannot confirm adulteration.