A horror story about palm oil
Palm oil: they are trying to rob us by playing on phobias
Sergey Abramov, RefNews
In any society, there are horror stories that people piously believe. The Russian people are no exception in this sense: we, just like Asians or Americans, have a whole bunch of different phobias. And because of this, unfortunately, we become easy prey for those who, using mythical problems, shake money out of us allegedly to solve these very problems, but in fact just stuff their pockets.
One of these typical horror stories, which are used for selfish purposes, was again voiced by the media a few weeks ago. They began to scare us with palm oil, which is supposedly very harmful and dangerous. The Baltic Food Union demanded 11 times, up to 0.9 mmol of active oxygen per kilogram, to tighten the requirements for the peroxide number for palm oil used in the production of domestic fat and oil products.
And, of course, people's deputies from the State Duma of Russia immediately joined the situation. In particular, some deputies said that because of the "mess in regulation" importers are buying cheap technical palm oil abroad, which, after being imported into the territory of the Russian Federation, is sent to the production of food products. That is, once again, through the media, they began to convince us that tropical oils, and in particular palm oil, are a terrible poison. But what about reality?
Professor of the Faculty of Fundamental Medicine of Lomonosov Moscow State University, head of the ANO SIC "Healthy Nutrition" Oleg Medvedev is sure that there is no scientific evidence that palm oil or other tropical oils have a bad effect on health. To date, in accordance with the main document of the World Health Organization – Codex Alimentarius, the most authoritative set of food standards in the world, the peroxide number for palm oil is 10 mmol of active oxygen per kilogram. Everything below is considered safe. For extra virgin cold–pressed olive oil, which is part of the healthiest diet in the world - Mediterranean, this indicator is 15 mmol. So judge for yourself, are they deceiving us when they talk about the dangers of palm oil? Or maybe the whole point is that someone is hindered by the developed domestic fat-and-oil industry?
The executive director of the Fat and Oil Union of Russia, Yuri Morozov, assures that unscrupulous competition, supported from abroad, has been launched against the industry. And the head of the commission of the Fat–and-Oil Union of Russia for technical regulation and standardization, Yuri Sultanovich, believes that tropical oils are a necessary raw material for a large type of specialized fats, and abandoning them will not only throw us back to a narrow assortment of Soviet times, but also form a gap in the market, which will immediately be filled with imports.
Only foreign processors will benefit from this. "It is an absolute myth that in Malaysia or Indonesia you can almost buy thousands of tons of cheap and low-quality tropical oil on the street. Tropical oil is an exchange commodity and it is impossible to buy "left" cheap low–quality oil," says Sultanovich.
In general, if a decision is made to change the standard for the peroxide number, the supply of palm oil to Russia as a raw material for the production of high-tech fat and oil products will be discontinued. Domestic enterprises will not be able to produce complex fats that are in demand in other branches of the Russian food industry, and this will lead to an uncontrolled increase in imports of products from the EU.
"Well, what about us? – you ask. – We have eaten and we will eat imported food." The devil, as they say, hides in the details. The import of products is a serious increase in its value. Does anyone want bakery products, ice cream, and much more to jump sharply in price in stores and on the market? At the same time, the quality of the products will be identical to what our enterprises produce! I'm not saying that such a strange decision to tighten technical regulations will simply lead to the destruction of the domestic fat and oil industry, in the development of which more than 50 billion rubles have been invested in recent years, and tens of thousands of jobs across the country are involved. They will all have to be kicked out into the street.
"Those who today, through the press, propose to change the technical regulations on the use of palm oil, work for foreign enterprises, trying to suppress the domestic industry and thereby put Russia back in a dependent position on foreign producers," Morozov explains.
As a result, I believe that we should seriously ask those who inflate various phobias in our society and who, playing on people's fears, are trying to earn financial capital for themselves. Palm oil is not just harmless, it is very useful. This is confirmed by centuries of its use by mankind. And as a vivid example proving my point, I will cite the fact that in countries where palm oil is one of the main products, the average life expectancy of the population is 8-10 years longer than in Russia.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru14.07.2014