Its minister Hamzah Zainuddin said the collaboration would enable the ministry to track down those responsible for spreading inaccurate news about any consumer issue.

“We want to tackle the culture of ‘breaking news’ because such news should come from the media, which is aware of the creadibility of any news,” he told reporters at the parliament lobby here yesterday.

He also advised consumers to refer to the ministry for reliable information on consumer issues.

Earlier, in reply to a question from Senator Chia Song Cheng during the question-and-answer session at the Dewan Negara regarding the adjustment of the cooking oil subsidy, Hamzah said from Oct 21 until Dec 4, the ministry had seized 82 tonnes of cooking oil worth RM563,691 nationwide.

He said 48 cases involving various offences including seven cases of hoarding were recorded.

“Other cases were selling (cooking oil) without a licence (11 cases), failure to maintain a stock book (12 cases), storing supplies exceeding the limit (four cases), violation of licence conditions (one case), selling higher than set prices (one case) and 12 cases for other offences,” he said.

For the same period, he said, a total of 78,765 inspections were carried out, 622 complaints were received with 597 settled while another 14 cases were brought to court for trial.