If you're in business in China and get your cooking oil from Sinograin, you might want to find another supplier. A scandal is brewing there because they used the same trucks to transport fuel and apparently have been at it for years.
It was an "open secret" in the transport industry that the tankers were doing double duty, according to a report in the state-linked outlet Beijing News last week, which alleged that trucks carrying certain fuel or chemical liquids were also used to transport edible liquids such as cooking oil, syrup and soybean oil, without proper cleaning procedures.
On Tuesday, the food safety office of China's administrative State Council announced an interdepartmental team would investigate the transportation of edible oil, pledging that those responsible for any malpractice "will be severely punished in accordance with the law," according to a statement posted on the website of the top market regulator.
You get the feeling that if China's state media is what's breaking the news, mobile execution vans are already en route.
Food security and safety have been cornerstone issues for Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who has linked them to national stability and called their successful oversight a test of a government's ability to govern.
