The world’s richest democracy, the US, as we know it, is addicted to crude oil while the largest democracy — on the other hand — is hooked on cooking oil. We just don't seem to be getting enough of it. From just half a million tonnes in 1990-91, our imports of cooking oil have swelled 30 times over to 15 million tonnes now. It is the single largest item of food import, costing 9.89 billion USD last year.
We've shown to have a finicky choice of oils at home, preferring the ‘better’ ones like mustard, canola, soybean, and sunflower. However, unknowingly, we consume huge quantities of saturated fats in the form of palm oil (45 percent compared to 6 percent of mustard oil) while snacking on potato chips, namkeens, biscuits, samosas, kachoris, cakes, muffins, etc. Imports account for 66 percent of our edible oil consumption and in that, palm oil had a 43 percent share last year.