Tainted cooking oil recalled
- Source: Global Times
- [03:19 September 03 2010]
- Comments
Jinhao reportedly issued a statement on its website last month assuring the public that their oil was safe and that questions over their products' quality were rumors.
By Deng Jingyin
A well-known cooking oil manufacturing company based in Central China's Hunan Province was forced to admit Wednesday that several batches of its camellia oil contain excessive amounts of a cancer-causing substance, and about nine tons of the product are still available on the market.
The company Jinhao had reportedly been aware of its problematic oil products for five months but tried to cover it up until recently, when a number of media reports appeared exposing the scandal.
Jinhao reportedly issued a statement on its website last month assuring the public that their oil was safe and that questions over their products' quality were rumors, Beijing News reported. The statement was later removed.
A statement published on Jinhao's website Wednesday said that the company had produced nine batches of camellia oil totaling 42.458 tons from December 2009 to March this year containing excessive amounts of benzo (a) pyrene (BaP), a kind of chemical that can pose great risks to people's health if used excessively.
The BaP level in the recalled oil was five to six times higher than the standard level.
The company also stated that it had made unspecified recalls of the oil products March 20 and April 22, in addition to 22.361 tons of the oil at the company's warehouse sealed by the Hunan quality control authority, which also recalled 11.152 tons of the product. Jinhao did not specify the whereabouts of the nine tons of tainted oil in the statement.
"Customers can contact our company anytime to return or change the products from the nine batches," an assistant to Jinhao's spokesman told the Global Times Thursday.
Local authorities have also been accused of keeping the public in the dark. Beijing News quoted one unnamed official as saying that the reason for this was to maintain social stability. Hunan Province's quality watchdog never informed the public of its recall decision.
"Camellia oil is not cheap for ordinary people, but I have to throw it away without even knowing whether it is harmful to my health. I wasn't even told whether the oil I bought is on the recall list," Chen Yahui, a Changsha resident, told the Global Times Thursday.
An official from the State General Administration for Quality Supervision and Inspection and Quarantine told the Global Times that local authorities reacted quickly in recalling the products, but failed to inform the public in time.
"The BaP level was five times higher than the national standard, but does not pose a high risk to people's health as the general limit is much higher in China," he said.
All products made by Jinhao have been removed from the shelves in Beijing's major su-permarkets, such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Wumart.
