KARACHI - Out of 88 companies, a majority of manufacturing units of cooking oil and Banaspati are not conforming to the standards set by the national body of federal government, The Nation learnt on Friday. The Pakistan Standards Quality Control Authority is the competent body to monitor and test the quality of more than 50 items including cooking oil/edible oil and ghee. According to concerned officials, the manufacturers were not following the prescribed standards, necessary for the manufacturing of edible oil and ghee manufacturing. The edible oil and ghee manufacturers are providing the substandard commodity especially in the rural areas of the country because majority of the population there is poor and unaware about the standards of this important food item. The PSQCA tests the moisture, volatile matter and insoluble impurities in Soyabean oil, free fatty acid (as oleic acid) in Refined Palm olein, colour, one cell lovibond scale (Y+10R) in sunflower, colour in canola oil, refractive index at 40 centigrade in cooking oil, refractive index at 50 centigrade in corn oil, refractive index at 60 centigrade in RBD Palm oil and per oxide value (m. eq 02kg) in Banaspati. Despite the repeated warnings and issuance of showcause notices, the majority of these manufacturers were not conforming to the quality, officials said adding that these manufacturers were powerful and they have strong connections in the power corridors. The rules authorize the Pakistan Standards Quality Control Authority to stop the sale of product of those manufacturers which were non-conforming with the quality. The PSQCA has asked the manufacturers to refrain from manufacturing such products which do not conform to the relevant standards and ensure that such products would neither be stocked with nor sold in the market, official maintained. Senior official of PSQCA told The Nation that it has been proved from the testing results that the majority of manufacturing companies of cooking oil and ghee do not use/include "Vitamin A and D" in the commodity which was important. Similarly the manufacturers were not meeting the prescribed moisture and acidity in the ghee and cooking oil, said an expert of PSQCA who remained part of testing of the commodity. Official pointed out that the absence of vitamin A and D, the less or more moisture and acidity in the cooking oil and ghee than prescribed standards was hazardous for health and it could cause asthma. A senior official of PSQCA further said that on the basis of results of tests carried out by authority, the products of cooking oil and ghee were found non-conforming to the requirement set in Pakistan Standards. Besides proving default to quality in manufacturing, the edible oil and ghee manufacturers were using the recycled containers and tins which are extremely harmful for the human health. The 88 cooking oil and ghee manufacturing units are marketing 106 brands. About 40 units produce cooking oil while 48 produce banaspati ghee. According to official statistics, at least 22 cooking oil and 25 banaspati/ghee manufacturing units are located in Sindh while 16 units of cooking oil and 5 units of banaspati/ghee are located in Punjab. Meanwhile 10 cooking oil units are in NWFP and 5 in Balochistan.