FDA clears Palm oil from Kade

The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has given the green light for the sale of some quantities of palm oil following new laboratory tests.

The FDA had earlier cautioned the public against the consumption of palm oil after its investigations revealed that they contain Sudan IV used for dying clothes.

Truck drivers from Kade whose businesses were badly affected by the development took quantities of the product for testing to enable them distribute to major markets in Accra.

They have since been cleared for sale after the tests proved that they do not contain Sudan Four.

Public relations manager of the FDA James Lartey told Starr News the oil is good for human consumption.

“They brought about five trucks of the oil, we have sampled them at the lab and none of them contain Sudan IV,” he said.

The palm oil business is in bad times after the FDA drew public attention that palm oil containing Sudan IV is a likely cause of cancer.

The Authority had asked suppliers to volunteer their products or risk being punished, if test on seized products showed the oil was not edible.

The FDA had earlier revealed that 98 percent of earlier test it had done on impounded barrels of palm oil showed it contained Sudan IV and had cautioned the public against consuming palm oil.

“Zomie (palm oil) contains a lot of Sudan IV which has carcinogenic substances that can cause a lot of health complications”.

The FDA has heightened its market surveillance after discovering palm oil samples picked from ten markets in the Greater Accra Region contained the highly dangerous textile dye which causes cancer.

Out of 50 palm oil samples the FDA randomly took from various markets, 98 percent of them tested positive for the Sudan IV dye.

Sudan IV dye in palm oil was detected outside Ghana some months ago. The British Foods Standard Agency (FSA) issued a recall notice to a sales outlet that stocked unlabelled Ghanaian palm oil and which was said to have contained the carcinogenic Sudan dye.