Phoebe Zhang

Opinion | Without better food safety, being health-conscious in China is a lost cause

The authorities deal with scandals seriously, including the recent one involving cooking oil, but by then, it may be too late. Regulation and monitoring must be stepped up

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A shopper passes by cooking oil products at a supermarket in Beijing on July 10. Photo: AP

Phoebe Zhangin Shenzhen

Published: 9:30am, 20 Jul 2024Updated: 10:25am, 20 Jul 2024

For years, my friend Viola and I have been regularly swapping healthy recipes. Whenever one of us discovers new literature focused on health, such as the recent book Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity by Dr Peter Attia, or new science about longevity or some healthy ingredients in the supermarket, we immediately tell each other.

We have learned that replacing food high in saturated fats, such as bacon, with salmon, or replacing saturated fats like lard with olive oil, lowers the chances of a heart attack and premature death. I find that one’s meat intake should be under 200g a day, while vegetables can be 500g, but we should also eat fish at least twice a week. Sweets and refined flour should be taken in moderation, in controlled, tiny portions. Sometimes when I cook, I use measured amounts of oil and salt to limit my intake.

We also scour the internet in case of food scandals at any of the restaurants we love. When a dead rat was found in a Xiabu Xiabu hotpot restaurant in 2018, we didn’t go there for months.

But when the latest cooking oil scandal came out, we were speechless.

Earlier this month, a state-owned newspaper in Beijing reported that Chinese companies had been using the same trucks to transport fuel and cooking oil. The report immediately sparked widespread public concern and calls for greater oversight of the food transport industry. Days later, China’s cabinet, the State Council, set up a team to investigate the allegations.

The scandal has been devastating. Suddenly, we felt that our healthy living habits had been a joke. No matter how carefully we planned our food, how closely we watched our calories, how much we tried to eliminate the risks, what can we do if there’s fuel mixed in with our cooking oil without our knowledge?

01:15

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