Recycled Cooking Oils : Assessment of Risks for Public Health

Študija 01-09-2000

Used cooking oils constitute waste which is included in the group of urban or municipal waste (as Other domestic/commercial waste), which have shown a huge increase in their volume of production in the last few decades. Catering establishments are on the increase in European countries, which suggests that cooking oils will also increase. Furthermore, their liquid nature prevents disposal in landfills, which is regulated by the corresponding EU directive. This means seeking alternatives for their recycling, currently based mainly on their use in animal feeds. The recent cases of dioxin contamination in chicken and other foods have urged EU institutions to promote the objective study of all aspects involved in the process, so that reasonable measures may be adopted to prevent further accidents, and to avoid drastic and ill conceived measures. This has led to the present study to assess cooking oils which, as waste from commercial food activities (catering industries and services), present a burden on the environment and are therefore currently recycled mainly for use as fatty raw materials in poultry and livestock feeds. Consumer safety demands an assessment of how the entire food chain should be continuously controlled (traceability) to prevent public health risks. Traceability is a basic aspect which establishes the essential inter-relationship and collaboration that must exist between all the agents. A break in this traceability, at any of the levels, greatly increases the risk of possible accidents with repercussions on public health, since full control of the process is lost. With the above in mind, the present study makes an analysis of risks derived from all the agents involved in using recycled cooking oils: primary sources producing cooking oils, collectors of oils for recycling, recycling industry, manufacturers and importers of fats for feeds, feed manufacturers, livestock/poultry farms, and consumers. The main aim of this report is to assess the risk i