In today's society, food safety has always been the focus of people's attention. However, a recent in-depth investigation by the Beijing News revealed a shocking chaos in the field of tanker transportation of edible oil, which undoubtedly poses a huge potential threat to the public's food safety.
Looking back on the past, the problems of the food industry are endless, the shadow of the food hygiene incident in the duck intestine factory has not yet dissipated, and the chaotic situation of edible oil transportation has broken into the public's field of vision. In May this year, reporters from the Beijing News invested a lot of time and energy in a long-term and meticulous follow-up investigation of edible oil transportation. The results are staggering, and the transportation operations of domestic general cargo tankers are extremely disorderly and chaotic.
The reporter found a tanker with a license plate number of Hebei E**65Z, which set off from the Ningdong coal-to-liquid plant area on May 16 and finally arrived in Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province after a two-day journey. Ningdong Coal-to-Liquids Plant, a large plant covering an area of thousands of acres in the vast Ningdong energy and chemical base, is mainly committed to converting coal into liquid wax, white oil and other products through cutting-edge technology. Most of this produced coal-to-liquids are transported to coastal areas to become raw materials or fuels for chemical products.
When the coal-to-liquid unloading was completed, the tanker did not leave in a hurry, but stopped temporarily on the side of the road nearby. It is reported that the driver belongs to a large convoy, and there are as many as a dozen tankers like him in the convoy. The chauffeur can only wait patiently here until he receives a new assignment.
On May 20, the tanker, which had not been cleaned in the tank, restarted its engine and slowly drove into the parking lot of Huifu Grains and Oils Group. It was learned from the security guard at the gate that this parking lot belonged to Huifu Grain and Oil Group, and the tankers who came here were usually here to load cooking oil. At 10 a.m. the next day, the tanker, which had never cleaned its tanks since unloading, entered the factory of Huifu Grains and Oils Group unimpeded. An hour later, it left the plant with a full load of 31.86 tons of first-class soybean oil. Sadly, the shipping documents kept by the doorman became irrefutable evidence of this violation.
Coincidentally, on May 24, another tanker truck, which was also transporting coal-to-liquid from the Ningdong coal-to-liquid plant to Hebei, stopped in the parking lot of Tianjin's Binhai District several times, waiting for instructions to transport edible oil. According to the driver, the car has also not been cleaned by the tank, and the driver has shown a resigned attitude to the risk of being rejected by the manufacturer. In the end, as expected, the tanker successfully entered the factory of China Grain Storage Oil (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. The reporter learned from the security department that the tankers entering the factory were loaded with soybean oil, and this tanker was no exception, and it was loaded with 35 tons of soybean oil. During the whole process, no one checked the cleanliness of the tank.
Coastal areas, due to the concentration of many edible oil manufacturers, have become a popular choice for transporting coal-to-oil tankers on their return journey. Nanhe District, Xingtai City, Hebei Province, is known as the "Hometown of Tankers" and has at least 3,000 tankers. These tankers frequently shuttle between the Ningxia coal-to-liquids plant and the coastal edible oil mills. However, as the number of tankers continues to grow, the transportation market becomes more and more competitive, and transportation prices have fallen significantly. The one-way freight from Tianjin to Xi'an has plummeted from more than 400 yuan per ton to about 200 yuan. In order to cut costs, many tankers had to find distribution on the way back, making coal-to-liquids a new source of income.
However, the reduction of transportation costs has brought a series of serious problems. In order to save money, a large number of tankers not only cannot realize the special use of special vehicles, but even resolutely refuse to clean the tanks when replacing the transported goods. Because of the high cost of cleaning the tank, and the frequent replacement of transported goods by general cargo tankers, each cleaning means a lot of money. The tanker drivers reluctantly said that it was entirely up to the fleet owner to decide whether or not to clean the tank, and even if they sometimes had the idea of cleaning, they had to obey the boss's arrangement.
On the side of edible oil manufacturers, the lax and perfunctory inspection work is jaw-dropping. In the eyes of tanker drivers, an important reason why the fleet owner dares not to arrange tank cleaning is the lax inspection standards of some edible oil manufacturers. Drivers have reported that these manufacturers usually only symbolically inspect the two mouths of the tank, and the drivers only need to wipe these two parts to easily pass the customs. A tanker driver from Xingtai, Hebei Province, revealed that the team owner is well aware of the inspection of each manufacturer, and knows that most of them will not conduct in-depth and detailed inspections.
The Beijing News reporter contacted Huifu Grain and Oil Group in the name of transporting edible oil, and the staff claimed that they did not require special tankers for edible oil, but only required the goods transported by the tankers for the first three times to be edible oil, and claimed that the workers would inspect the tanks before loading the oil. However, a number of tanker drivers revealed that the company's tank inspection work is superficial, and it is even more convenient for acquaintances to transport.
The reporter also got in touch with the grain storage oil (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., the sales manager said that in principle, a special tanker is needed, but in practice, as long as the tank is marked with the words "edible oil special", the company is not responsible for the inspection of the tank, nor is it responsible for the quality of the edible oil after loading. Another edible oil production company in Tianjin's Binhai New Area also went through the motions when it came to inspecting cans, and the driver was able to do the trick by uploading a few photos, and even allowed to use the previous photos to get by.
Some edible oil manufacturers require the outside of the tank to be marked with the word "edible oil", and the drivers say that it is very easy to get by, and only need to erase the previous words "ordinary liquid" and respray. The reporter observed at the door of the company that there were obvious traces of alteration of the media information on the tanks of many tankers, and some were simply covered with stickers and re-posted, even so, these tankers were still able to transport edible oil with swagger.
The GB/T30354-2013 Specification for Bulk Transportation of Edible Vegetable Oil, which has been implemented in mainland China since 2014, clearly stipulates that special vehicles should be used for the transportation of bulk edible vegetable oil, and the use of non-edible vegetable oil tankers or containers is strictly prohibited. However, it is regrettable that because the code is a recommended rather than a mandatory standard, the binding effect on edible oil manufacturers is quite limited. Professor Wang Xingguo of the School of Food Science and Technology of Jiangnan University pointed out that even if this is a recommended standard, enterprises should also use it as a benchmark when formulating their own standards, and should not be lower than this standard.
Qiu Jian (pseudonym), a tanker driver, revealed that if the tank is not cleaned after unloading the coal-to-liquid, thousands of grams to more than a dozen kilograms of coal-to-liquid may remain in the tank. He further emphasized that it is difficult to completely remove the residue by ordinary water washing methods, and only the method of alkaline water and high-temperature steaming tank can achieve better cleaning results. Qiu Jian also mentioned that general cargo tankers can transport a variety of chemical liquids, and coal-to-liquid is only one of them, and the lax inspection standards of edible oil manufacturers make edible oil face a very high risk of contamination during transportation.
Zhu Yi, an associate professor at the College of Food Science of China Agricultural University, solemnly warned that the unsaturated hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons, sulfides and other components contained in coal-to-liquid pose a serious threat to human health, and long-term consumption may lead to poisoning. If edible oil tankers also transport other chemical liquids, the potential risks are even more difficult to estimate. Zhu Yi particularly emphasized that if edible oil is adulterated with more toxic chemical liquids, whether it is direct contact or inhalation, it may cause irreversible damage to the human body.
Qiu Jian urgently called on all sectors of society to attach great importance to this industry chaos, after all, edible oil is closely related to the food safety of thousands of households. He firmly believes that the key to solving this problem is to strictly inspect the cans of edible oil manufacturers, "Edible oil manufacturers should be the most effective in careful inspection, which can solve 99% of the problems." "However, the reality is that many transportation orders are subcontracted layer by layer, and buyers and sellers are often ignorant of the condition of the tanker trucks that will be finally shipped, resulting in a state of near-loss of control in the process of bulk edible oil in the process of long-distance transportation.
The Beijing News' investigation ruthlessly lifted the ugly veil of mixing edible oil with chemical liquids in the tanker transportation industry and not cleaning it, a phenomenon that undoubtedly poses an extremely serious threat to food safety. Due to the negligence and slackness of edible oil manufacturers in the inspection process, as well as the lack of enforcement of the recommended national standard "Edible Vegetable Oil Bulk Transportation Specification", the risk of edible oil being contaminated by chemical liquids during transportation is increasing day by day.
Food safety has reached an urgent moment, and the food industry urgently needs more attention and stricter and more effective regulatory measures. Only in this way can we effectively ensure that the public can enjoy safe and healthy food with peace of mind, and firmly protect the "safety of the tip of the tongue" of the people.