The Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency (LASCOPA) has raised the alarm over the circulation of adulterated palm oil in the state, warning residents against purchasing products suspected to have been tampered with.
The agency said it had stepped up surveillance of markets across Lagos as part of efforts to protect consumers from unsafe and substandard food products.
The warning followed a presentation at the Lagos State Food Safety Conference and Exhibition by a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Food Technology, Auchi Polytechnic, Dr Nurah Oseni.
Oseni, in a paper titled, “Palm Oil Adulteration: Emerging Risks, Detection Strategies and Regulatory Control,” said the commodity was particularly susceptible to adulteration because of its high demand, consumers’ preference for deep-red palm oil and price variations.
She also identified informal trading practices and the increasing difficulty of detecting sophisticated adulterants as factors worsening the problem.
According to the lecturer, some adulterators now use potentially carcinogenic Sudan and Azo dyes to enhance the colour of palm oil and make inferior products appear more attractive to consumers.
She also expressed concern over the practice of mixing palm oil with recovered or recycled oils, including spent cooking oil.
Oseni warned that some adulterated products could contain multiple substances deliberately combined to make detection through basic quality checks more difficult.
As an initial precaution, she advised consumers to pay attention to the appearance of palm oil when making purchases.
She explained that genuine palm oil could separate into layers, with the lower portion appearing orange to reddish-yellow rather than having a uniformly deep-red colour.
The expert, however, stressed that visual inspection alone could not confirm whether palm oil had been adulterated, making laboratory testing and regulatory surveillance necessary.
Reacting to the concerns, the General Manager of LASCOPA, Afolabi Solebo, urged residents to remain vigilant and report suspected cases of adulterated palm oil to the agency through its official channels.
Solebo said the agency was committed to protecting consumers from unsafe, substandard and deceptive products, adding that market surveillance had been intensified across Lagos.
He warned traders against dealing in adulterated palm oil, saying anyone found selling unsafe products would be arrested and prosecuted in accordance with relevant laws.
The agency urged consumers who suspect that palm oil or other food products have been adulterated to report such cases promptly to enable authorities to investigate and take appropriate action.
The warning comes amid broader concerns over food safety and the circulation of substandard and potentially harmful products in Nigerian markets.
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