Health hazards marketed cooking oils pose

FE Team | Published: April 24, 2026 18:55:53

That the commonly used cooking mediums like soybean oil, dalda (a popular brand of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil), dairy butter and margarine (a plant-based substitute for dairy butter made from refined vegetable oils) in Bangladesh pose health risks is common knowledge. Physicians often advise their patients to develop the habit of consuming less edible oils in their foods. However, common cooking oils when heated at high temperatures (deep frying) as well as when industrially processed (deodorized), they contain what experts call trans fatty acids, in short, 'trans fats'. These are unhealthy unsaturated dietary fats. They are harmful because they raise the level of bad cholesterol and, at the same time, lower the level of good cholesterol in blood. In this connection, Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA), an autonomous national food safety regulatory agency in collaboration with a private organization that works on used cooking oil (UCO) to convert it into biodiesel, carried out a study during the 2024-25 fiscal year on different samples of cooking oils including soybean oil, dalda, butter, margarine, etc., in use in Bangladesh. The BFSA-led study found that those samples of common cooking oil including vegetable oils and fats (such as butter) contained 'trans fats' beyond the permissible limits. The BFSA, at a recently-held seminar, informed the audience about the hazards the popular brands of cooking oils in the market pose to public health due to their excessive trans fats contents.
The experts at the seminar advised the people to avoid using these cooking mediums found in the market as more than 63 per cent of the soybean oil samples contained trans fats above safety limits. Similarly, close to 98 per cent of dalda, over 86 per cent of butter and nearly 43 per cent of margarine samples were found to contain very high amounts of trans fats. Notably, the BFSA-introduced regulations in 202 (which came into effect at the end of 2022) set the maximum limits of trans fats in all processed and packaged foods at 2.0 per cent. But safety limits are being complied with not in their observance, but in their blatant violations. An analysis of the Global Burden of Disease data indicates that the number of deaths related to trans fats-induced heart diseases are on the rise in Bangladesh and in 2019 those medical conditions claimed more than 12,000 lives. In this context, the FSA seminar informed that globally the number of fatalities for the same reason is around 278,000 a year. In Bangladesh, for instance, out of every 10,000 deaths, 59 are caused by heart diseases. And 4.0 per cent of those deaths from heart disease is linked to trans fats. Experts warned the people against consuming foods prepared with repeatedly heated, i.e., burnt cooking oils, as those increase the risks of cardiovascular disease, cancer and neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. But the restaurants in the country are using burnt cooking oils with abandon in defiance of the BFSA's regulations.
Used cooking oils are also harmful to the environment because if disposed of down the drains, they act as pollutants in the water systems and cause damage to soil health. By contaminating the ecosystem, used cooking oil (UCO) can contribute to climate change, experts say. So, it is not simply public health, used cooking oils are also harmful to the environment. But only deliberations at indoor seminars on the harmful effects of marketed cooking oils used by households and at the eateries will not suffice.
Alongside raising public awareness, strong monitoring by the BSFA and other government institutions such as the sanitary and health departments concerned should be mounted to control use of cooking oils that contain more than accepted levels of trans fats. In particular, the restaurants in the country should be under surveillance to control the use of repeatedly heated cooking oils.