India is playing host to a two-day Global Rice Bran Oil Conference to be held in Mumbai on August 7 and 8, 2015.
The event would be inaugurated by chief minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis and hosted by the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India, an association of vegetable oil industry and trade.
Industry and health experts from China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, India, and so on are congregating for the event. It will discuss position, promotion and prospect of rice bran oil as healthy oil in the world. This is the second such event after it was first hosted at China last year.
The two-day event will focus on issues related to rice bran oil including its nutrition & health benefits, its patronisation by medical fraternity, regulatory issues, quality control and so on. The participants will include manufacturers, scientists, doctors and nutritionists.
Rice Bran oil is obtained from the brown layer of rice, which constitutes about 5% of paddy and is enriched in oil to the extent of 10-25%. Research institutes in India and abroad have found rice bran oil a heart-friendly oil with unique properties beneficial for maintaining good health. It is the only cooking medium which has an ideal SFA/MUFA/PUFA ratio and EFA ratio which is closer to the recommended levels of WHO.
A number of scientific studies have confirmed that using rice bran oil as a cooking medium could significantly reduce the bad cholesterol without adversely affecting the good cholesterol due to presence of a unique component in this oil know as “Oryzanol,” which is not found in any other vegetable oil.
Globally, about 15 lakh tonne of rice bran oil is produced out of which India produces about 9.5 lakh tonne per annum used for human consumption as cooking oil, blended oil and vanaspati.
Sharing details of the conference, Dr B V Mehta, executive director, Solvent Extractors’ Association of India, mentioned that the event would further enhance the perception of rice bran oil as the healthiest cooking oil.
“Thanks to its low cost, everyone can access safe and heart-friendly cooking oil. We look forward to learn from the experiences from different countries that would be shared during the conference” he added.
Eminent world authorities on rice bran oil like Prof. Xuebing Xu of Wilmar R&D Centre, China; Prof. Dr Teruo Miyazawa of Tohuku University, Japan; Dr Tran Thanh Hoa of Cai Lan Oil & Fats Industries Vietnam; Prasert Setwipattanachal of Surin Bran Oil Company Limited, Thailand; and Fumi Tsuno, of Tsuno Foods Industrial Co. Ltd, Japan; are among the international leaders who would attend and present papers at the conference. The experts from India will include Dr V Prakash, distinguished scientist from CSIR; Dr B Sasikeran, former director, NIN, Hyderabad; Dr Shashank R Joshi, endocrine and metabolic physician; Dr V Chockalingam, leading cardiologist; Dr R B N Prasad, chief scientist & head, IICT; and Atul Chaturvedi, CEO, Adani Wilmar Ltd.
