Arrests and fines in fallout from China’s cooking oil scandal

Team led by State Council’s food safety body says perpetrators were ‘trampling on the bottom line of morality and the red line of the law’

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A team investigating China’s cooking oil scandal has vowed “zero tolerance” for such incidents, pledging to continue to control the transport of cooking oil. Photo: AP

Published: 2:36pm, 26 Aug 2024Updated: 4:41pm, 26 Aug 2024

Two truck drivers have been arrested and three transport companies penalised in the aftermath of a cooking oil scandal that ignited widespread anger in China.

The penalties were detailed in findings by food safety investigators looking into media reports that uncleaned fuel tankers were being used to transport cooking oil.

“[The transport incident] was extremely bad in nature, trampling on the bottom line of morality and the red line of the law, and is a typical criminal offence that must be dealt with severely,” the team led by the State Council’s Commission on Food Safety said in their findings on Sunday night.

The team also included representatives from the National Development and Reform Commission, the ministries of public security and transport, the National Health Commission, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration.

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China launches high-level probe after paper says fuel tankers used to carry cooking oil

The scandal erupted last month when The Beijing News published a report claiming it was an “open secret” in the transport industry that some tanker trucks were used to carry cooking oil and chemicals without being cleaned between loads to save money.