The Hindu Business Line : ‘Use of coconut oil for cooking not harmful’

Hyderabad, June 28 Coconut Development Board is working on blending coconut oil with some specified vegetable oils to make it more acceptable as a cooking medium, according to Ms Minnie Mathew, Chairman, Coconut Development Board.

Delivering the inaugural address at a national seminar on ‘Coconut and its derivatives’ at Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) here on Saturday, Ms Mathew said coconut oil had missed the growth which was witnessed by oils like soybean after 1960s.

“There are many reasons for this. Coconut continues to be cultivated by small and marginal farmers and is not part of commercial estates of oil— palm and soybean. As the price of coconut is being determined by the price of coconut oil, the economic benefit for the farmers has been low,” she said.

Citing a recent study on the health-related aspects of use of coconut oil in cooking by Sri Chitra Institute, she said it would have no harmful effects. The board would also launch a promotional campaign to increase the use of coconut oil, Ms Mathew added.

Dr S M Sadikot, President, Diabetes India and Vice-President International Diabetic Foundation, said that the strengths of traditional cooking media which used coconut oil predominantly prior to 1970, should be scientifically established. “We need to publish them in the peer-review journals to fight against negative campaigning on the use of coconut oil,” he said.

Dr A C Kunwar, Director In-Charge, IICT said the vegetable oil industry in India was worth Rs 70,000 crore with about Rs 15,000 crore forex earnings. “As there is requirement for a strong R&D group for this size of industry, we have decided to establish a dedicated Centre of Excellence for Lipid Research with all the processing and quality control facilities in our institute,” he said. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) had approved the proposal for the centre and had sanctioned Rs 17 crore, he added.

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