The Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency (LASCOPA) has warned residents to be cautious when buying palm oil as concerns grow over increasingly sophisticated methods used to adulterate the product.
The agency said it would step up market surveillance across Lagos to identify unsafe and substandard palm oil and protect consumers from potential health risks.
The warning followed a technical presentation at the Lagos State Food Safety Conference and Exhibition 2026 by a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Food Technology, Auchi Polytechnic, Dr Nurah Oseni.
Oseni, in a paper titled, “Palm Oil Adulteration: Emerging Risks, Detection Strategies and Regulatory Control,” identified several factors making palm oil susceptible to adulteration, including its large trading volume, price differences and informal market practices.
She said, “Palm oil is particularly vulnerable to adulteration because of its high trading volume, consumers’ association of deep-red colour with quality, price differences, informal market practices, and challenges in detecting sophisticated adulterants.”
According to the lecturer, some adulteration methods involve the use of potentially carcinogenic Sudan and Azo dyes to deepen the colour of palm oil.
She also identified the mixing of palm oil with recovered or recycled oils, including spent cooking oil, as another emerging concern.
Oseni further warned that some adulterants were being combined in ways designed to bypass basic quality checks, making detection more difficult.
Beyond physical adulteration, she raised concerns about traceability fraud, including falsified product labels and batch records.
She therefore called for stronger monitoring and improved testing procedures throughout the palm oil supply chain.
Oseni advised consumers to conduct simple visual checks as an initial precaution when purchasing palm oil, while stressing that such observations cannot independently establish whether a product has been adulterated.
She explained that palm oil could separate into layers, with the lower layer generally appearing orange to red-yellowish instead of having a uniformly deep-red appearance.
However, she cautioned that consumers should not rely solely on colour or other visual characteristics to determine the safety or authenticity of palm oil.
She recommended a tiered detection approach combining risk-based screening, rapid physicochemical and spectroscopic testing, and confirmatory laboratory analysis.
The process, she said, should also include proper sampling and chain-of-custody procedures to strengthen the reliability of test results.
Oseni proposed a five-stage surveillance framework for Lagos based on “Risk Map, Sample, Screen, Confirm and Act”.
She said the framework should be backed by an adulteration intelligence database and coordinated efforts involving processors, traders, laboratories, regulators, researchers and consumers.
Meanwhile, the General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of LASCOPA, Afolabi Solebo, reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to shielding Lagos residents from unsafe and substandard products.
Solebo urged residents to remain vigilant and report suspected cases of adulterated palm oil and traders involved in such practices through the agency’s official channels.
He said, “We urge Lagosians to shine their eyes and report suspected adulterated palm oil and unscrupulous traders through the Agency’s official channels.”
He added that LASCOPA would intensify market surveillance across the state as part of efforts to protect consumers.
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