On July 2, the state-backed Beijing News reported that two Chinese companies were using fuel trucks to transport edible oils in Tianjin and neighboring Hebei province without cleaning their tanks. The trucks were unloading fuel chemicals and then proceeding directly to cooking oil facilities to take on new loads without undergoing mandatory cleaning, allowing them to save 300 to 900 yuan ($41.80 to $125.40) per journey.
Experts noted that toxic residues may remain inside the trucks, posing unpredictable risks to the human body, particularly the respiratory and digestive systems.
The practice had been allowed to continue for years partly due to lax supervision on the part of the cooking oil manufacturers and also the absence of monitoring and regulation by the government.
The cooking oil contamination scandal demonstrates China’s long-standing struggle to improve food safety measures. Massive scandals involving contaminated food products have driven some middle-class consumers to bypass supermarkets altogether to buy straight from the farm and from overseas.
The past couple of decades has seen a plethora of high-visibility food and agricultural contamination scandals in China, from “cadmium rice” to rat meat sold as lamb to recycled cooking oil sourced from restaurant waste or sewers.
In 2008 it was revealed that infant formula produced by local food manufacturer Sanlu Group was tainted with the chemical melamine; the contaminated formula killed six infants and poisoned 300,000. Authorities suppressed the scandal to protect China’s image on the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. With the strongly held perception that imports are safer than domestic products due to the belief that the former meets higher safety and quality standards, thousands of consumers boycotted local formula brands in favor of foreign ones.
The companies mentioned in the Beijing News report are Sanhe Hopefull Grain and Oil Group and China Grain Reserves Oil and Fat, the latter a subsidiary of state conglomerate Sinograin, China’s largest grain storage and transport company. The two produce popular cooking oil brands like Jinding, Huifu, and Jinhuifu. Both companies have launched investigations. Other major Chinese cooking oil manufacturers not mentioned in the report, such as Shandong Luhua Group Corporation and Yihai Kerry, also announced supply chain inspections.
Estimates suggest that over three-quarters of refined vegetable oil in China is transported in containers to factories where it is repackaged for consumers or used to make other products. Even those who do not buy cooking oil from the implicated firms may eat it in processed food (such as chili oil and baked goods).
Public Outrage and Food Safety Fears
The Beijing News report unsurprisingly caused an uproar, prompting consumers to search for alternative cooking oil supplies amid worries over the safety of edible oils available in the market. The controversy quickly became the top trending topic on social media platforms including Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin. Thousands of posts on social media expressed outrage and disappointment about the lack of accountability from the government.
“What’s most important is how to convince the people that similar incidents will never happen again,” read one comment that received thousands of likes on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo.
In response, some have been panic-buying artisanal cooking oil while others are making their own by buying household oil press machines. According to local reports, sales of these machines in the past two weeks have exceeded sales over the previous six months. Search volumes for oil press machines jumped 22-fold, and sales volumes quadrupled between July 5 and July 12, local media reported, citing data from online retailer JD.com.
Authorities quickly announced a high-level investigation led by a cross-departmental team within the State Council. Promising strict action against those responsible, the Food Safety Office of the State Council declared, “Illegal enterprises and relevant responsible persons will be severely punished according to the law, with no leniency.”
The fact is, however, that the long-standing struggle to improve food safety measures is hampered by certain party behaviors that exacerbate popular concerns. Top Communist Party leaders have their own food supply chain, a practice that dates back to the Mao era. This raises questions over inequality in access to safe food, as well as distrust of the government’s food safety assurances given that the special supply chain is made up of organic produce.
Addressing Concerns
Some steps have been taken by the central government to address food safety concerns including the 2007 implementation of a food hygiene law, national food safety laws in 2009, and establishment of a food safety commission in 2010.
In 2016, the country’s National Strategy for Food Safety was established. The document outlines a roadmap for zero tolerance for food safety risks by 2020, aiming to have all Chinese “eat at ease and safely.” The national strategy also plans to establish strict food safety standards and governance by 2050.
The following year, in 2017, China published the “Plan for National Food Safety Standard Work” under the Chinese National Health and Family Planning Commission. One of the document’s aims is to standardize practices for food production and operation.
President Xi Jinping has repeatedly vowed to tackle the notorious food safety problems since taking office over a decade ago. In a speech at the Central Rural Work Conference in 2013, he warned that the Communist Party’s legitimacy would be questioned if it “cannot even do a good job in food safety.”
However, implementation of these regulations continues to have loopholes. Taking the current scandal as an example, Chinese food safety regulations stipulate that containers for transporting food should be “safe, non-toxic, and clean,” and that food should not be transported together with toxic items. In terms of the bulk transport of edible vegetable oils, China currently has only one non-mandatory national standard, which stipulates that bulk edible vegetable oils should be transported using dedicated tankers. While these standards are not legally binding, companies are expected to follow them.
Push to Safeguard Food Security
Tied to social and political stability, food security has been a top priority for Chinese authorities for thousands of years and remains so today. A Chinese idiom holds that “people regard food as their heaven” (民以食为天). Despite China’s enormous population, the country has limited arable land and water resources, making the security of food supplies a constant preoccupation. For older generations, including Xi’s, fear of the political instability associated with the famines of the 1950s and 1960s is firmly etched in their minds.
In recent years, officials have been giving food security increasing importance. In the face of an increasingly complex global environment and geopolitical dynamics, food security has risen to the same level as financial and energy security. Although China moved from being a net exporter of food to a net importer in 2004, the central authorities have frequently emphasized increasing domestic production and self-sufficiency to protect domestic food security.
Adding to this, the country’s top leaders, including Xi, have publicly highlighted the importance of safeguarding food security through many policy measures and targets. The issue was reinforced by China’s national and domestic five-year plans, such as the 14th Five-Year Plan and other key Chinese Communist Party (CCP) documents, including Xi’s 20th Party Congress Report.
Beijing has also implemented key policies and devoted substantial financial resources to support both national and provincial food-production policies, targets, and strategies alongside the implementation of stricter rules regarding the protection and usage of farmland and significant investments into agricultural research and development to help address agricultural production concerns. As Xi famously declared, the rice bowls of China’s 1.4 billion people “will always be firmly held in their own hands.”
To further support these agricultural production measures and increase self-reliance efforts, Beijing has launched nationwide campaigns to cut food waste, look after the country’s grain, and reduce food demand. Although China has seen consecutive bumper harvests, the country’s leaders have frequently pointed out the necessity of preventing food waste, reducing undernourishment, and generating benefits for retailers and consumers. For example, Xi launched nationwide campaigns against food waste in 2013 and again in 2020. Alongside these campaigns, in 2021, the national “Anti-Food Waste Law” was passed by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and came into effect immediately.
However, the modern challenge has only grown. Due in part to limited arable land and water resources, industrialization, rising contamination levels, and soil pollution, China’s food security has deteriorated significantly in recent decades. Domestically, China is hindered by heavy contamination of the country’s limited land and water resources and labor shortages. Although the country is home to nearly one-fifth of the world’s population, it has only 7 percent of the world’s arable land. The actual amount of arable land is also much less when considering the severe contamination of China’s land and water supplies, accelerated by the strong use of fertilizers.
Similarly, China is grappling with water concerns. Despite being one of the top five countries in terms of freshwater resources, the country faces serious water quality issues as well as quantity issues owing to highly uneven spatial distribution. These issues are compounded by overuse and pollution.
Such concerns further fuel fears about the quality and safety of locally produced food and domestic brands. Low public confidence is reflected in opinion polls. A survey from 2023 cited in The Economist found that only 25 percent of respondents in China were satisfied with food safety standards.
Censorship
While authorities may have placed stronger emphasis on food safety, it remains a sensitive topic. As the China Media Project noted, in the Xi Jinping era, the party leadership has emphasized “positive propaganda” alongside the need for media to abide by “correct public opinion guidance.”
The extent of information control is obvious. Amid news of the cooking oil contamination scandal, various hashtags discussing the scandal and related searches were censored. Many articles related to the contaminated cooking oil scandal, such as discussions of the country’s food safety rules and regulations and the lack of regulatory oversight, have since been censored or deleted. Reports circulated online that the local logistics platform Fahuobang suddenly took its truck-tracking feature offline. Beijing News reporter Han Futao, who first revealed the cooking oil malpractice, was found to have his Weibo account deleted.
The recent contaminated cooking oil scandal underscores the persistent failure of China’s food safety oversight, revealing deep-seated issues of regulatory laxity, absence of adequate monitoring, and censorship that continue to undermine public trust. Despite government assurances and previous regulatory measures, the latest revelations about the use of fuel trucks for transporting edible oils have sparked widespread public outrage and highlighted deep-seated issues in food security.
As the implications of the scandal continue to play out, Beijing should consider implementing regulatory reforms and mandatory standards for edible oil transport and also stipulate dedicated vehicles for cooking oil. Doing so will help ensure transparency to restore consumer trust and safeguard public health. Until consumer food concerns are addressed transparently and comprehensively, the nation’s efforts to ensure safe and reliable food sources will remain fraught with risk.