Tehran, Iran, Aug. 20
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
After publishing some reports about using palm oil in dairy products in Iran, an official says that in total, the quality of dairy products in the country is not satisfactory.
The deputy of health minister Seyed Reza Gholami says Iran's industrial and traditional produced dairy goods are polluted and do not meet health and safety standards.
Seyed Reza Gholami went on saying that "Over 47 percent of traditional ice-creams and 10 percent of industrial ice-creams are unhealthy."
According to an IRNA report, Gholami said on Aug. 19 that the quality of 47.6 percent of traditional products and 33 percent of industrial products are not satisfactory in total, based on tests carried out in 10 provinces. Gholami, however, refused to name the provinces.
Earlier this month, the health minister confirmed a report that there is palm oil in high fat milk and asked citizens to avoid full fat dairy products.
"Unfortunately, this issue is true and we have presented this report to the president," Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi told reporters.
According to Dr. Majid Haji Faraji, director of the Iranian National Nutrition and Food Industry Research Institute, the problem is that hydrogenated vegetable oils like palm oil contain saturated fatty acid, a trans-fats that could lead to increase of cholesterol build up in arteries and eventually to heart attack, Tehran Times reported on Aug. 6.
Authorities say five companies that used to add palm oil to their products have been shut down.
Based on Iran Customs Administration's official statistics, Iran totally imported 29,400 tons of palm oil in the first four month of current calendar year (which started on March 21). The figure shows a 44 percent increase compared to same period of last year.
Iran also imported 97,400 tons of palm olein in the mentioned period, which is 47 percent less than the previous year.
Some 15,100 tons of super palm olein was also imported in the mentioned four month, which is 395 percent more than previous year.