Pomace oil ban to be reviewed

The General Secretariat of the UAE Municipalities (GSM) said yesterday that it will re-evaluate the temporary ban on pomace olive oil from Spain in response to a statement issued by the Spanish authorities stating that their products no longer contain the cancer-causing chemical alpha benzopyrene

The Spanish government issued a statement on Sunday lifting the self-imposed ban on export of pomace olive oil implemented since last month.

Obaid bin Easa, Assistant General Secretary for the GSM, told Gulf News: "We will first collect all the information and data on the matter. After that is analysed and assimilated, we will look at the issue of the ban. A decision will be only taken after extensive evaluation."

The National Committee for Food Safety is scheduled to hold a meeting next week at the GSM and a discussion on the ban might be on the agenda.

Detection of unacceptably high levels of the carcinogen in oil extracted from pulpy residue or pomace of olives, had resulted in an international health scare, with the GSM banning all pomace oil in the market as a precautionary measure on July 9.