Food safety scandal rocks China as report claims cooking oil carried in same trucks as fuel

Source:  CNN
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Public outrage is mounting in China over allegations that a major state-owned food company has been cutting costs by using the same tankers to carry fuel and cooking oil – without cleaning them in between.

The scandal, which implicates China’s largest grain storage and transport company Sinograin, and private conglomerate Hopefull Grain and Oil Group, has raised concerns of food contamination in a country rocked in recent decades by a string of food and drug safety scares – and evoked harsh criticism from Chinese state media.

It was an “open secret” in the transport industry that the tankers were doing double duty, according to a report in the state-linked outlet Beijing News last week, which alleged that trucks carrying certain fuel or chemical liquids were also used to transport edible liquids such as cooking oil, syrup and soybean oil, without proper cleaning procedures.

The two companies named in the media report have also said investigations are underway.

Meanwhile, other major edible oil manufacturers not named in the report issued statements saying they did not use fuel trucks to transport their products.

Food security and safety have been cornerstone issues for Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who has linked them to national stability and called their successful oversight a test of a government’s ability to govern.

As discussion of the claims exploded across social media in recent days, China’s tightly controlled national-level state media also rushed to criticize alleged malpractice – in a sign the state wanted to be seen driving condemnation of the issue, as opposed to acting to tamp down public anger.

State broadcaster CCTV earlier this week called the alleged practice and the potential contamination of food products from left-behind fuel in the tankers “tantamount to poisoning” and showing “extreme disregard for consumers’ lives and health.”

Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily said when food safety is at stake there is “no right to silence” and called on regulators to act.

Experts quoted in official media also discussed health hazards of the alleged practices.

“Using chemical tankers for edible oils will inevitably result in residual contamination,” said Liu Shaowei, a food safety expert cited by CCTV.

Long-term consumption of the oils with chemical residues can lead to poisoning with symptoms like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. It may even cause irreversible damage to organs including the liver and kidneys, Liu added, according to the broadcaster.

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