Mali's 'infertility cooking oil'

By Celeste Hicks
BBC News, Bamako

Many Malian families sitting around a wide brightly coloured plastic bowl and tucking into tasty traditional dishes such as "riz gras" - fatty rice, groundnut sauce and fried mutton - may be running the risk of becoming infertile.

This is because as Mali is sub-Saharan Africa's biggest cotton producer, cotton oil is the oil of choice for most cooks.

I'm still buying it, because it's much cheaper Female shopper

The home-grown cooking oil has sparked a health scare because it has been discovered that many of the country's oil factories lack the correct refining equipment to remove the toxin gossypol from cotton seed.

It is gossypol, according to the Malian Consumer's Association (Ascoma), that can cause infertility.

"Gossypol is responsible for azoospermia - that's an absence of sperm in the semen," Ascoma's Ibrahima Sangare says.

"It's also responsible for interrupting the menstrual cycle and pregnancy and can also affect the liver and the heart," he says.

Gallons

In the last month, the government has closed down more than 80 small-scale producers.

Large barrels of oil can still be found in almost every corner shop

Only 16 have permission to continue pressing, but badly refined cotton oil still seems to be making it on to the market, with gallons of it still for sale.

Large barrels of oil can be found at almost every corner shop - while some of this is imported sunflower seed oil or palm oil, most of it is cotton.

There has been a public information campaign alerting people to the dangers.

But some feel the message is taking time to get through.

"If people know it's not good they don't buy it, but there are quite a lot of others who don't know - I think more than the ones who do know," explains one middle-aged woman shopping for her family in the capital, Bamako.

I've heard it's dangerous, but I still sell it Trader

And advice by word of mouth does not seem to hold much sway down in Bamako's busy Djicoroni market.

"I heard from other people and on the radio that it's bad and can make people ill," one shopper says as she chats with her friends under a make-shift wooden market stall.

"But I'm still buying it, because it's much cheaper."

It does not take long to find someone still selling cooking oil.

"Yes I've heard there are problems with oil - that it's dangerous, but I still sell it," one trader says from his corrugated iron decorated with Coca-Cola advertising.

No guarantee

After closing down some refineries and trying to raise awareness, the government says it is now up to the consumer to make the choice.

Cotton oil sells for almost half the price of imported cooking oils

"If you buy oil in bulk, in an unknown condition, then I can't give you a guarantee that it's safe," says Adama Konate, head civil servant at the ministry of industry.

Plans are afoot, he says, to ensure consumers are able to know where the oil comes from.

"What we're working towards is that all producers in Mali will have a certain transparency, so you can see the date it was made, the factory it was made in, and with what sort of water they made it.

"With these rules I can give you a guarantee," Mr Konate says.

"So it's necessary that the consumer demands that the products they buy have a degree of transparency."

The real solution, Mr Konate feels, would be for Mali to start refining sunflower, sesame and groundnut seeds to make cheap cooking oil at home without the dangers of cotton seed oil.

But while cotton oil continues to sell for almost half the price of the imported cooking oils, most large families with mouths to feed do not feel they have the luxury to demand a better choice.