Chinese Govenment Published New Consumer Guidelines on Sesame Oil

The Chinese government has published new consumer guidelines focused on sesame oil, in which consumers have been warned to look out for adulterated or blended products over fears of food safety issues, reports the FoodNavigator-Asia.  The guidelines were published by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), calling upon consumers to pay more attention to food labels when making sesame oil purchases.  Consumers were also warned to only purchase sesame oil from dependable sources where they can be sure the proper food safety certificates and license have been obtained due to the high risk of contamination or adulteration otherwise.  
 SAMR also advised consumers to pay close attention to characteristics such as color and smell.  Pure sesame oil is said to be ‘light-red, orange-red or yellowish-red’ whereas blended oil will be more of a dark yellow if mixed with rapeseed oil or blackish-red if mixed with cottonseed oil.  
China becomes another country to have had trouble with oil fraud.  Earlier this year, the Food Safety Standards Authority India (FSSI) had to enforce ban on blended mustard oils to prevent adulteration in the country.