BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese state media on Monday criticized the state grains stockpiler Sinograin after local media reported that its fuel tankers were allegedly also used to transport cooking oil, sparking food safety concerns.
The Beijing News last week reported it was an “open secret” in the transportation industry that Sinograin was using tankers to transport both fuel and food products like cooking oil, soybean oil and syrup, without cleaning the tankers in between.
The report sparked an uproar on social media over worries of food contamination.
Chinese consumers have been increasingly sensitive over food safety, with consumers turning to foreign brands and Beijing stepping up controls, after a series of scandals, including the sale of baby formula containing lethal amounts of the industrial chemical melamine in 2008.
Sinograin, in a Weibo post on Saturday, said it had ordered an investigation into whether transportation carriers leaving and entering its warehouses were compliant with food safety regulations.
Transportation units and carrier vehicles found in violation of the regulations would be terminated immediately and any major problems found would be reported to the relevant regulatory authorities, Sinograin said.
On Monday, state broadcaster CCTV called the operation a cost-saving measure that was “tantamount to poisoning”. “While Sinograin is trying to make up for its loss, consumers are still confused and stunned,” CCTV said in a post on WeChat.
“Usually, we can avoid poor quality cooking oil by not cutting corners and choosing big brands and well-known manufacturers. But big brands can also have loopholes in the transportation chain where fuel and cooking oils are mixed, which is obviously beyond most people's knowledge,” it said.
Such mixing of products was “not only a blatant provocation to the ‘Food Safety Law’, but also showed an extreme disregard for the life and health of consumers,” CCTV said.