Editor’s note: Sign up for CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter, which explores what you need to know about the country’s rise and its impact on the world.
Hong Kong
CNN
—
Public outrage is growing in China over allegations that a major state-owned agribusiness cut costs by using the same tankers to transport fuel and cooking oil, without cleaning them in between.
The scandal, which involves Sinograin, China’s largest grain storage and transportation company, and private conglomerate Hopefull Grain and Oil Group, has raised concerns about food contamination in a country rocked in recent decades by a series of food and drug safety scares – and drawn harsh criticism from Chinese state media.
It was an “open secret” in the transportation industry that tanker trucks were performing double duty, according to a report last week by state media Beijing News, which alleged that trucks carrying some fuel or chemical liquids were also being used to transport edible liquids such as cooking oil, syrup and soybean oil, without proper cleaning procedures.
On Tuesday, the food safety bureau of China’s administrative State Council announced that an interdepartmental team would investigate the transportation of edible oil, promising that those responsible for any malpractices “will be severely punished in accordance with the law,” according to a statement posted on the website of the main market regulator.
The two companies cited in the media report also said investigations were ongoing.
Meanwhile, other major edible oil manufacturers not named in the report have issued statements saying they do not use tankers to transport their products.
Food safety and security are core 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 discussions of the allegations have exploded on social media in recent days, China’s tightly controlled state media have also been quick to criticize the alleged wrongdoings – a sign that the state wants to be seen as condemning the problem, rather than acting to appease public anger.
State broadcaster CCTV said earlier this week that the alleged practice and the potential contamination of food products by fuel left in tankers was “akin to poisoning” and showed “extreme disregard for the lives and health of consumers.”
The Communist Party’s mouthpiece People’s Daily said that when food safety is at stake, “there is no right to remain silent” and called on regulators to take action.
Experts quoted in state media also spoke of the health dangers of the alleged practices.
“Using chemical tankers to transport edible oils will inevitably lead to residual contamination,” Liu Shaowei, a food safety expert, was quoted as saying by CCTV.
Long-term consumption of oils containing chemical residues can lead to poisoning with symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. It can even cause irreversible damage to organs, including the liver and kidneys, Liu added, according to the TV station.
Public reaction and investigations
On China’s heavily moderated social media, many citizens have called for product recalls and increased oversight of the industry.
Some also appear to link the situation to broader problems in the country, where the economic slowdown is generating social frustration and there are deep concerns about the limits of accountability of powerful, government-linked entities.
“Even cooking oil that is essential to people’s daily lives has now become problematic… Ordinary people cannot be properly protected… Now I just want to mock (phrases like) ‘rule of law’ and ‘serving the people’ whenever I see them,” read one comment on Weibo, China’s X-style social media platform, which has garnered thousands of likes.
As public anger simmered, state-owned Sinograin announced Saturday that it had launched inspections across its operations and pledged to stop working with any transportation provider found to be violating safety regulations.
“Sinograin requires all units in the system to strictly fulfill their responsibilities, abide by working standards and prevent risks of contamination of grain and oil reserves,” the company, China’s official grain storer, said in a statement posted on its official Weibo account.
A staff member at Hopefull Grain and Oil Group told state media Economic View on Monday that “relevant departments” have investigated the matter and will make an official announcement. The person added that a tanker featured in the report did not belong to the company and said there were no quality issues with its brand’s oil products, according to Economic View.
Despite several calls, CNN was unable to reach Hopefull Grain and Oil Group. Reached by phone by CNN, a Sinograin representative declined to provide further comment beyond its online statement.
No official announcement of a product recall has been made. However, CNN found that no products were available for purchase on the official store of Sinograin’s Jinding cooking oil brand on the Taobao e-commerce platform as of Wednesday afternoon, although the reason was unclear.
Experts cited by state media noted that while China does not have a specific law governing the procedures for transporting edible oils, national guidelines state that transporters must use “dedicated containers, and tankers and containers of non-edible vegetable oil are strictly prohibited for this purpose.”
In China, the Food Safety Law stipulates that food “shall not be stored or transported together with toxic or harmful materials” and that mixing toxic and harmful inedible raw materials is a crime punishable by a potentially lengthy prison sentence. Those convicted of food poisoning that results in death are subject to the death penalty.
Despite improving living standards in recent decades, food safety is a recurring problem in China, where dozens of high-profile scandals have been reported by local media since the early 2000s, triggering stricter government regulation.
In one of the most egregious cases, six infants died and some 300,000 others were sickened by consuming powdered milk containing melamine, a toxic industrial chemical. Several executives found responsible for the 2008 case were eventually sentenced to death, and the tragedy sparked deep distrust of domestic products and food safety in China.
The widespread sale and use of gutter oil – or cooking oil recycled from gutters, household sewers and grease traps – became a major problem in the early 2010s. Another case in 2022, also revealed by state media, showed how “dirty” pickled cabbage was supplied to popular instant noodle brands.
Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed the importance of food security and the security of grain and staple food supplies. In a 2013 speech cited in a People’s Daily article last year, Xi said the ruling Communist Party’s ability to “provide satisfactory guarantees on food security” was a “major test of our governance capabilities.”
“As the ruling party of China, if we fail to deal with something as fundamental as food security, and if we fail to solve the problem and even let it persist without proper resolution for a long period of time, the party’s ability to govern will be challenged,” Xi said.
Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said the directive to investigate the current scandal likely came “from the highest levels” — noting that food safety is both a key issue related to government legitimacy and that the allegations come at a sensitive time when economic woes in China are causing a “more volatile society.”
The situation, Huang added, could well be the biggest food safety scandal since 2008, given the volume of oil regularly transported and the fact that it could be a long-standing problem that could have affected large sections of the population.
“This problem is even worse (than some past scandals) because you can avoid consuming contaminated cooking oil, for example by not dining out, but you can’t avoid contaminated cooking oil because it is difficult to identify and avoid in everyday meals,” he said. “That’s why people are so upset.”
