The red palm oil in your pot is probably fake and nobody is talking about it

My mother called me yesterday to say the palm oil she bought from her usual market in Surulere tastes different. She said it looks too red. I told her to send me a picture and bruh, that thing was glowing like brake light.

I started digging into this thing and the numbers are not funny. There is a whole supply chain of people mixing dye into palm oil and coloured pepper just to make it look fresh. The same oil we use to cook egusi, the same pepper we blend for stew. And we are all just eating it quietly.

So here is my honest take. If your palm oil is bright red like Fanta, it is not real. Real palm oil is dark, almost brownish when it settles. We have been conditioned to think the redder the better and that is exactly how they are catching us. My mother has been buying fake oil for God knows how long and she is a woman who has been cooking for 40 years. What chance do the rest of us have?