The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
Partially hydrogenated oils have an assured market in India. They are cheaper and easier to use in processed food industry and commercial eateries. The other reason for its popularity is Indian regulations do not spell the need to specify the oil used to make vanaspati. This, when the business of …
In the 1970s, when concern about the link between saturated fats (like butter, lard, tallow) and heart diseases started growing, experts suggested a shift to unsaturated fats, which are in the liquid form. But the food-processing industry needed semisolids, for products like cakes and biscuits, for which they partially hydrogenated …
Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 includes specific standards on edible oils giving broad specification for different oils. The act allows two different oils to be blended and sold. The specifications do not lay down guidelines on fatty acid composition of different oils. There are specifications for vanaspati. Companies can …
Which cooking oil is best for us? Why do I ask? Are we not bombarded with advertising messages telling us there is a healthy oil that is good for the heart? They talk of monounsaturated fatty acids (mufa), and polyunsaturated fatty acids (pufa) and of course, catch-us-words like omega properties. …
G.S. MUDUR New Delhi, Feb. 3: The levels of dangerous transfats in vegetable oils sold in India remain unregulated more than a year after a government panel had recommended standards for these hazardous fats, a non-government agency said today. The Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, said all seven …
Sunita Narain, who hit the headlines in 2003 on claims that soft drinks like Pepsi and Coke have high pesticide content, has now targeted the vanaspati industry for high trans fat levels. Narain-led Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has conducted a study on major vanaspati brands like Dalda, Rath, …
Kounteya Sinha | TNN New Delhi: Trans fat, a known trigger for heart attacks, causing thousands of premature deaths globally every year, has been found in tremendously high quantities in almost all popular Indian cooking oils. Laboratory tests conducted by Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on seven vanaspati …
Ill health would come at the top of any list of the effects of fog and smog followed by disruptions in transport services. Most of what we call fog in metros like Delhi and Kolkata is smog created by atmospheric pollutants that get mixed up with thick, moisture-laden air that …
This new lab study on cooking oils by CSE, finds high levels of dangerous trans fats in all samples of vanaspati oil. Expresses concern over delays in setting up of stringent standards and recommends tough enforcement so that companies cannot take us and our food for a ride. There is …
The term, 'environment', has many connotations. In this paper, by 'environment' we mean the natural environment, which encompasses all the biotic and abiotic elements that form our surroundings, that is, the air, the land, the water, the forests, the seas. In India, more than three-fourths of its population depends directly …
Aanand Pandey / New Delhi December 9, 2008, 0:33 IST When your reputation is under attack, do not look for someone to blame, do not weasel out by citing technicalities, and do not sidestep responsibility. The to-do list forms this article. While you read it, send for Amitabh Bachchan Midway …
IF you are concerned about losing the battle against pollution, there's all the more reason to worry. The Central Pollution Control Board (cpcb), the national apex body, can hardly be called a regulator for tackling environmental degradation. In fact, it is "near-defunct". This extraordinary conclusion comes from a report presented …
Here the authors report the first worldwide reconnaissance study of the presence and occurrence of pesticides in fruit-based soft drinks. While there are strict regulations and exhaustive controls for pesticides in fruits, vegetables, and drinking water, scarce attention has been paid to highly consumed derivate products, which may contain these …
SHILLONG: Random mining carried out in an unscientific manner in Meghalaya has led to severe degradation of the environment there, according to a new study. "Considerable portions of the state's Jaintia Hills, which have over 46 percent forest cover, have been turned into degraded land due to extensive mining," said …
