OMG: Millipedes In Palm Oil To Enhance Taste And Sales In Ghana Exposed

Palm oil production has come under fire again, this time in Ghana - an exposé on market women who use millipedes to enhance their palm oil taste which improves sales.


Postgraduate students from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Ghana carried out a research with horrific findings. According to the survey, some women who sell palm oil in these markets admitted to soaking millipedes overnight in the oil. 

They say the insects secrete liquids that give a sweet taste and add colour to the oil. Presenting the finding of the survey at the First National Conference on Food Fraud in Kumasi, the leader of the team, John-Louis Zaukuu, said most of the women who spoke to the team admitted to adding these items to the products to make them appealing to the consumers. 

Although the team was yet to know the health implication of these items on humans, he said the secretion produced by the millipedes had been found to cause allergies in humans. - 

This comes only two months after the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) discovered that traders were using Sudan IV, a cancer-causing agent, in the production of palm oil in Ghana. 

I hope this fad has not found its way into the UK markets.