Bangkok– Authorities in China said they were investigating concerns about food safety in cooking oils after an investigative report by local media revealed that tankers carrying soybean oil from a major state-owned company were also used to transport a form of carbon.
The report by Beijing News, a state-backed outlet known for its original reporting, found that it was an “open secret” among truckers that tankers were not cleaned between their periods of transporting edible oils and 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 nationwide companies directly supervised by the government.
China’s State Council said on Tuesday it was forming a research group with officials from the Food Safety Commission, the Public Security Bureau and other ministries. “Companies violating the rules and responsible persons will be severely punished according to the law,” the announcement said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
The Beijing News investigation followed a tanker truck from the northwestern region of Ningxia, which was carrying a type of hydrocarbon that is converted into liquid fuel. From Ningxia, the tanker traveled north to Tianjin and then filled with Sinograin soybean oil, without stopping to clean it.
Hydrocarbon products contain components that can cause poisoning, said an expert quoted in the Beijing News article.
China Grain Reserves Group, the formal name of Sinograin, said in a statement on Saturday that it was conducting an audit following the media allegations.
The investigation also followed other trucks that emerged transporting hydrocarbons from a plant belonging to the China Energy Investment Corporation, which then went on to acquire edible oils from other companies after unloading their first shipment.
The story, published last Tuesday, has since received widespread national attention as major state corporations were implicated.
In 2008, many families began to buy imported infant formula after it was discovered that a brand called Sanlu contained melamine in its formula, a chemical that caused kidney and other damage. The contaminated formula killed six babies.
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AP Asia business climate reporter Aniruddha Ghosal contributed to this report.
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