”Arrests and fines in fallout from China’s cooking oil scandal“ 26 August 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 report referred to two truck drivers working for separate transport companies, one with a load of cooking oil from a subsidiary of state firm Sinograin and the other with a consignment of cooking oil from private Hopefull Grain and Oil Group.

In their findings on Sunday, the food safety team said the two truck drivers named in the Beijing News report had been arrested and were expected to face criminal charges...

Three other people served 10 days in administrative detention for issuing a false receipt that a truck had been cleaned.

In addition, two transport companies were stripped of their operating licences and fined more than 1.5 million yuan (US$210,000), while a third company – the registered owner of one of the tankers – was fined nearly 2 million yuan (US$281,000), the team said.

The Sinograin subsidiary was fined 2.86 million yuan while Hopefull was fined 2.51 million yuan. One company that bought the oil carried in the tankers was fined 300,000 yuan and another was fined 260,000 yuan...

The food safety team said that, apart from the two trucks mentioned in media reports, they “did not find any similar problems” in their nationwide investigation...