Cooking oil is derived from oil seeds or animal products. Animal based oil constitutes butter and lard.

Most widely consumed cooking oils are palm oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, palm kernel oil, peanut oil, cottonseed oil, coconut oil, olive oil and rapeseed oil.

As the flashpoint is above 60 Dec Celsius cooking oil is not considered as dangerous goods in transport. However, as a foodstuff there are other criteria to be considered.

Cooking oil is mostly transported in tanker ships and in portable tanks. Cooking oil can only be transported in food grade tanks. One of the first thing to check is what previous cargoes were carried in the tank.      

Federation of Oils, Seeds and Fats Associations Ltd (FOSFA) has lists of banned previous cargoes for guidance which includes conditions such as

• Banned Immediate Previous Cargoes.
• Leaded products must not be carried as the three previous cargoes.
• Ethylene Dichloride and Styrene Monomer must not be carried as the three previous cargoes in organic coated tanks.
• Ethylene Dichloride and Styrene Monomer must not be carried  as the last cargo in stainless steel and inorganic coated tanks.

FOSFA has two flowcharts for qualifying previous cargoes when trading under FOSFA terms. Click here to visit FOSFA

Apart from above there may be requirements of dietary laws such as Halal and Kosher certifications.

Cooking oil will degrade when exposed to light, heat and oxygen. Vapour space of the tanks will normally be filled with inert gas, mostly nitrogen, this is called nitrogen blanketing or tank blanketing.

Annex V of MARPOL deals with Prevention of Pollution by Garbage from ships.

On board ships plenty of cooking oil is stored as part of provisions and used in cooking. Waste cooking oil from ships are subject to MARPOL Annex V. Disposal of garbage from ships is regulated and prevented depending on the distance from land and what materials are to be disposed of. Refer MARPOL Annex V for more information.