In recent times, the incident of mixed loading of oil tankers has been escalating, with multiple brands being implicated, triggering concerns among the public regarding the safety of edible oils and leading to a sense of panic. In a supermarket in Henan, there was a frenzy of people lining up to purchase self-branded edible oils. The edible oils at Pandonglai Supermarket were sold out directly. On e-commerce platforms, household oil presses suddenly became best sellers. In addition, tanker drivers mentioned that the practice of not cleaning the tanks is very common.
The incident of mixed loading in oil tankers has stirred unease among the general public. On July 10th, several netizens from Henan shared videos showing many customers rushing to Pandonglai Supermarket in Zhengzhou. The peanut oil and sunflower oil at Pandonglai were already sold out, with uncertain restocking times. Most customers at the scene had their carts filled with oil. The customer service at Pandonglai Xuchang Times Square store stated that peanut oil was sold out, and sunflower oil was only enough for a few hours of sales, expected to be out of stock for a week. Videos showed numerous customers waiting in long lines outside Pandonglai to grab their self-branded edible oils.
According to online allegations, recently, all self-branded edible oils at various Pandonglai stores were sold out in less than half an hour. Staff mentioned that there has been a surge in oil purchases these days, with daily sales averaging up to 50,000 yuan, a tenfold increase from before. Restocked goods are sold out quickly, and even the warehouses are running out of stock. It would take at least a week to restock.
Furthermore, the online store of Pandonglai also showed that its edible oils were all sold out. A video recorder said, “In the queue at Pandonglai, buying Pandonglai’s ‘pressed edible oil.’ Managed to get some, this is Pandonglai’s ‘pressed peanut oil,’ this is Pandonglai’s ‘sunflower seed oil.'”
A resident of Zhengzhou, Liu Li, told Radio Free Asia on July 12th, “After the ‘poisoned oil’ incident, many people suddenly realized that edible oil, like other foods, carries health risks. She said, ‘The oil left on the stove now is like plastic, which was not the case before. I used to live in an old house without a range hood, the oil dripping down used to be in liquid form, but not now; now it’s sticky, gluey. That’s why there are more and more hospitals and pharmacies now. The oil made in small workshops now is actually very hygienic and environmentally friendly.'”
Many people are considering health aspects and purchasing household oil presses to make their own edible oils. E-commerce platforms show that several oil presses priced at over 700 yuan each have received orders from over a hundred people recently.
According to a report from “Epoch Financial Times,” on social media platforms, many consumers have posted about safety concerns regarding edible oils. Some choose to buy imported edible oils, while others have started refining their own oils. On the Xiaohongshu platform, there are over 1600 notes about household oil presses.
A customer service representative at a flagship store selling imported oils on Taobao disclosed that since the mixed loading incident, their store’s sales have sharply increased, “Especially in the past few days, we almost sold a month’s worth of goods in just a few days, and now the store’s inventory is running low.”
As reported by “The Beijing News,” after a long period of investigation, it was discovered in May this year that many ordinary freight oil tankers were transporting not only edible liquids like syrup and soybean oil but also chemical liquids like coal-made oil.
To save costs, many tankers do not clean their tanks during the cargo transition, leading to contamination of edible oils with residual chemical liquids. In the two exposed cases, tankers transported coal-made oil from Ningxia to Hebei, did not clean the tanks after unloading, and directly transported bulk edible oils.
What is even more worrisome is that this “mixed transportation” phenomenon is not an isolated case but rather an unspoken rule within the transportation industry, with bulk edible oils being nearly unregulated during long-distance transportation.
The incident has sparked public condemnation. Two industry-leading companies, Zhongmuliang and Huifuliangyou, have been caught in the maelstrom of mainland public opinion. The edible oil brands Golden Ding under Zhongmuliang and soybean oil, sunflower seed oil, and other products from their Taobao and JD flagship stores have been delisted, with only corn oil still showing as available but out of stock.
A Weibo member recently posted: “My distant relative drives an oil tanker for a living, I specifically consulted him about the common practice of tank cleaning in the industry involving companies like Zhongmuliang.”
He candidly told me, “The situation where tanks are not cleaned is actually quite common; most drivers in this field do not have high education, who could just happen to consume that oil? Everyone depends on driving to make a living, with a monthly income of around ten thousand yuan, working tirelessly almost 24 hours a day, extremely tough. In reality, bosses do not pay extra for cleaning the tanks, our main source of income is the quantity of loads we transport. If we can get away without cleaning, and no one is enforcing it, many people will choose the easier way.”
When asked under what circumstances drivers would choose to clean the tanks, he explained, “Generally, if I’m transporting something like eggs, then it’s just about earning the transport fee, hatching of the eggs during transportation is not my concern. Sometimes when transporting cattle or sheep, they leave a lot of excrement behind, and in those cases, not cleaning is not an option.”
The article concludes, “Curiously, I asked him if he disinfects after transporting animals, he smiled and said, ‘Normally just rinsing it clean is sufficient, where would there be so many viruses? Everyone is busy driving to earn money, the demand for disinfection is not high, only when there are particularly strict regulations would we comply.'”