A shopper passes the cooking oil aisle in a supermarket in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.
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Controversy over cooking oil in China has prompted locals to take matters into their own hands and work to source alternative supplies amid concerns about the safety of the oil on the market.
they are turning Make your own oil By purchasing a home oil press. according to local coveragesales of these machines in the past two weeks have exceeded sales in the six-month period.
Compared with sales before the scandal broke out, searches for oil presses surged 22 times between July 5 and July 12, and sales increased four times. Local media quoted data from online retailer JD.com.
“It hasn’t been opened yet, should I eat it or not?” a post on social media platform Xiaohongshu, the title of the video paired with a bottle of cooking oil shows the concerns of locals. The user from China's Guangxi province added: “It's a shame to throw it away, but I'm afraid of eating it and going to the hospital and spending all my money.” Certain hashtags Discussion of the scandal also appears to be censored on some platforms.
Chinese authorities have launched an investigation later caught up in food safety issues Domestic media revealed It is understood that China Grain Storage, a large state-owned enterprise, has been using tankers loaded with fuel to transport cooking oil.
According to the Beijing News, a newspaper owned by the Chinese Communist Party, the containers were not cleaned between loadings. The report also named Hefu Cereals and Oils Group, a private enterprise group.
Other truckers interviewed for the report noted that the tankers are often not cleaned before transporting edible liquids such as cooking oil, soybean oil and syrup in China to save costs. According to the Beijing News, some edible oil manufacturers do not strictly inspect or enforce whether the tanks are clean.
A tanker truck driver reportedly said it was an “open secret” in the tanker industry that food and chemical liquids were transported interchangeably without disinfection or cleaning.
“This means Chinese people will be afraid to eat out. They don't want to eat in restaurants,” said Shaun Rein, founder of China Market Research Group. Compared with the knock-on effects of the 2008 melamine scandal, he speculated that Chinese consumers will also start buying more imported oil.
In 2008, China suffered one of its worst food safety scandals Melamine, a chemical used in plastics, was added to milk, poisoning 300,000 children and killing six.
“The Chinese are starting to go to Australia, they're starting to go to Europe to buy baby formula. I think the same thing is going to happen with cooking oils. Be careful with 'Made in China' foods,” Rein told CNBC's “Squawk Box” Europe.
Times Finance also reported the surge in oil presses The salesperson quoted a local as saying that he planned to go to Hong Kong to buy cooking oil and other condiments to cook more dishes because he was not sure about the oil used in take-out dishes.
Chinese authorities promised to take strict action against the perpetrators. “Illegal enterprises and relevant responsible persons will be severely punished in accordance with the law and will never be tolerated.” The Food Safety Commission of the State Council of China stated that.