LASCOPA warns Lagosians against adulterated palm oil - Punch Newspapers

Bowl containing adulterated oil’s residue. Photo: Idowu Abdullahi

The Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency has raised concerns over increasingly sophisticated methods of palm oil adulteration, warning consumers against relying solely on the product’s colour to determine its quality. The agency issued the warning at the Lagos State Food Safety Conference and Exhibition 2026, following a technical presentation by Nurah Oseni, a senior lecturer in the Department of Food Technology, Auchi Polytechnic. Oseni, who presented a paper titled “Palm Oil Adulteration: Emerging Risks, Detection Strategies and Regulatory Control”, identified the high volume of palm oil traded, consumer preference for deep-red colouration and price differences as factors contributing to the product’s vulnerability to adulteration. She also cited informal market practices and the difficulty of detecting sophisticated adulterants as emerging challenges in ensuring the safety of palm oil sold to consumers. According to her, some adulteration methods involve the use of potentially carcinogenic Sudan and Azo dyes to manipulate the colour of palm oil.See more Punch stories on Google.Add Punch on Google She also identified the blending of palm oil with recovered or recycled oils, including spent cooking oil, as well as the use of multiple adulterants designed to evade basic quality checks. Oseni further raised concerns about digital and traceability fraud, including the falsification of product labels and batch records, stressing the need for stronger surveillance and improved detection procedures across the supply chain. She advised consumers to conduct simple visual checks as an initial precaution but cautioned that such checks could not conclusively establish whether palm oil had been adulterated. VIDEO: NSCDC busts illegal fruit juice factory in Lagos, arrests two Flood alert: Lagos orders vulnerable residents to relocate King’s College: Unity Colleges staff defy FG resumption order The lecturer explained that palm oil could separate into layers, with the lower layer typically appearing orange to red-yellowish rather than uniformly deep red. She, however, maintained that laboratory analysis remained necessary to confirm adulteration, recommending a tiered detection system involving risk-based screening, rapid physicochemical and spectroscopic tests, and confirmatory laboratory analysis. Oseni also advocated proper sampling and chain-of-custody procedures to strengthen the reliability of test results and support regulatory enforcement. As part of her recommendations, she proposed a five-step surveillance framework for Lagos: Risk Map, Sample, Screen, Confirm and Act, backed by an adulteration intelligence database. The framework, she said, should involve coordinated responsibilities among processors, traders, laboratories, regulators, researchers and consumers. The General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of LASCOPA, Afolabi Solebo, reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to protecting consumers from unsafe and substandard products. Solebo urged Lagosians to “shine their eyes” and report suspected cases of palm oil adulteration and unscrupulous traders through the agency’s official channels as market surveillance was intensified across the state. Ayoola Babalola

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