No contaminated oil has entered market, Guangdong says

No reserve edible oil that does not meet national food safety standards has entered the grain market or been used in food production in Guangdong province, the local food and strategic reserves authorities said.

In accordance with relevant national requirements, the province has established a three-tier local reserve system for edible vegetable oils at the provincial, municipal and county levels, according to the Food and Strategic Reserves Administration of Guangdong province.

The main types of edible vegetable oils in the local reserves across the province include soybean oil, peanut oil, blended oil and rapeseed oil, the authorities said.

After the edible oils are stored in the reserves, they must undergo acceptance testing by professional third-party quality inspection organizations, according to the authorities.

Edible oils must meet the quality criteria for storage as outlined in the grain and oil storage quality judgment rules, as well as the quality criteria specified in relevant national standards for edible vegetable oils and national food safety standards.

Only oils that pass the acceptance testing are confirmed as part of the local reserve supply, according to the authorities.

Since 2021, the random inspection rate of government reserve edible oil in the province has exceeded 30 percent of the reserve scale, with the pass rate for food safety indicators in the randomly sampled products reaching 100 percent.

Recent reports of tankers having illegal mixtures of cargo has sparked outrage among the public and led to a plunge in share prices of edible oil companies.

China Grain Reserves Group Ltd Co (Sinograin), the country’s largest grain storage and transport company, has been accused of being involved in mixed and contaminated cargo transport cases.

Also, Jinlongyu, a major domestic producer of packed edible oils affiliated with Yihai Kerry Arawana Holdings Co Ltd — a major domestic agricultural and food products processor — reportedly mixed transport of edible oils at its plants in Wuhan, Hubei province, and Shaanxi province.

Earlier this week, China’s authorities said they were investigating food safety concerns in cooking oils after an investigative report from local media revealed that tankers carrying soybean oil from a major state-owned company were also used to carry a form of coal.

The report from Beijing News, a state-backed outlet known for original reporting, found that it was an “open secret” among truck drivers that the tankers did not get cleaned in between their stints carrying edible oils and the chemicals.

Among the trucks the driver followed, the vehicles carried products from Sinograin, a major state-owned corporation, as well as China Energy Investment Corporation, one of the national-level companies directly overseen by the government.

China’s State Council said Tuesday it was forming an investigation group with officials from the Food Safety Commission, the Public Safety Bureau and other ministries. “Enterprises in violation and relevant responsible persons will be severely punished according to law,” the announcement said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

The Beijing News investigation followed one tanker from the northwestern Ningxia region, which carried a type of hydrocarbon that is converted into liquid fuel. From Ningxia, the tanker traveled to northern Tianjin and then filled up with soybean oil from Sinograin, without stopping to get clean.

The hydrocarbon products contain components that may lead to poisoning, said one expert quoted in the Beijing News story.

China Grain Reserves Group, Sinograin’s formal name, said in a statement last week that it was conducting an audit after the media allegations.

The investigation also followed other trucks that emerged carrying hydrocarbons from a plant belonging to the China Energy Investment Corporation, which then went on to get edible oils from other companies after they unloaded their first cargo.

The story, published last week, has since received widespread national attention as major state-owned corporations were implicated.

In 2008, many families switched to buying imported infant formula after it was found that a brand called Sanlu contained melamine in its formula, a chemical that caused kidney damage and other harm. The tainted formula killed six babies. MDT/Agencies