Bangladesh Edible Oil Limited (BEOL) has already taken all necessary steps to respect the official order given by High Court (HC) and the consumers of Bangladesh Edible Oil Limited can keep their trust intact on all products produced by this company.
The country’s first edible oil brand Rupchanda, which is also acknowledged outside of the country, will always provide the best quality products to the consumers and ensure “Healthiness in every Drop”.
The senior officials of the company claimed this at a press conference organised by BEOL in Dhaka.
Company’s General Manager, Inam Ahmed, Head of QA and EMS, Mohammad Imtiaz Masud, Head of Sales, Mohammed Redwanul Rahman, Senior Business Development Manager, Shamit Kumar Sarker and Marketing Manager, Faisal Mahmud spoke at the press conference on Rupchanda Mustard Oil’s stance on its license suspension by BSTI.
“It is for general notification for the customers of BEOL that we have been marketing edible oils and rice in Bangladesh with high reputation for the last 26 years. BEOL’s flagship brand is Rupchanda, which was the first to fortify Vitamin A for the well-being of common people before it became mandatory. Rupchanda is not only the absolute no. 1 edible oil brand of the country, but also awarded international certifications like AIB (American Institute of Bakers) Certificate & FSSC 22000 (ISO 22000:2005 & ISO TS 22000-1:2009). BSTI, through a letter dated April 28, 2019, has informed us that the iron content in Rupchanda mustard oil is 3ppm (0.003 gm/kg) higher than the prescribed standard,” the company said in a statement.
Processed through ‘Ghani’ method, which is a long-established historical Bengali tradition, Rupchanda mustard oil is packed in its purest form where no foreign chemical or ingredient is added. The iron presence in the oil is entirely natural from the seeds and this cannot be removed while keeping the oil quality intact. On the other hand, in the list of heavy metals that are harmful for human consumption, iron is not present. Moreover, a certain amount of iron must be taken daily in order to maintain a healthy fit body, it added.
The seeds of the Rupchanda Mustard Oil is solely collected from the local farmers. If we cannot use this seed, our agricultural sector will be hampered, and the general farmers will incur loss. Amid this situation, we have requested BSTI to process mustard oil in traditional Ghani method, and re-investigate tolerable scale based on the finding. In this context we can compare with the standard of neighboring country, India, where 2.6 million metric tons of mustard oil was produced in the financial year 2017-18. Specifications drawn up by the Bureau of Indian Standards under IS:546-1975 does not mention limits for iron in their list of metals that can be harmful if found beyond prescribed limit. Iron is not included in the “poisonous metals” list of “Agmark” standard of Ministry of Agriculture of India. And most importantly FSSAI specs, which is the only mandatory specs for Mustard Oil in India, too does not list iron in the list of toxic metals. Iron is not included in the list of harmful metals in internationally accepted CODEX standard, which is being followed as a reference for Bangladesh Food Safety Authority.
