The Myanmar government will take legal action against the sale of fake cooking oil starting this month, said Union Minister for Planning and Finance Kyaw Win.

“Don’t sell cooking oils that are labelled ‘100 percent pure peanut oil’ but are mixed with other oils. Don’t lie to the public,” the minister said. “If they are mixed oils, producers have to label how much of the percentage is mixed.”

The minister said the government will crack down on mislabeled oil products in a way that is fair to both producers and consumers, The Myanmar Times reported.

“There is no problem if mixed cooking oils are officially labelled,” said Khin Soe, chairman of the Myanmar Oil Millers Association. “But we can’t accept it when fake peanut and sesame oils are made using cooking oils and other unidentified oils plus artificial fragrance.”

“We demand that the minister take tougher action against these traders of fake oil, and he told us he would do so from March.”

One oil trader told The Myanmar Times that certain brands of peanut and sesame oil have been found to contain a mixture of several types of oils, even though their labels say the contents are 100 percent pure.

If the products are mixed with peanut oil, palm oil or sunflower oil, they must be labelled accordingly, the oil trader added.

Khin Soe also said some cooking oil brands sold in the market are believed to have been imported illegally. He called on the government to conduct stricter border checks to stem the supply of these products.

Minister Kyaw Win said illegally imported oils pose a potential health hazard because the government cannot guarantee the safety of these products. He urged the public to stop buying imported cooking oil brands if their source is unknown.