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Chinese food contains cancer causing chemicals
Confidence in China's food safety standards has taken another battering after it emerged that authorities in central China covered up the discovery of cancer-causing chemicals in a batch of cooking oil for more than five months.
By Peter Foster in Beijing
Published: 1:28PM BST 03 Sep 2010
Food safety monitors found high levels of the carcinogen 'benzoapyrene' in 42 tons of Camellia oil - an expensive, nutrition-rich oil used for cooking in China Photo: PHOTOLIBRARY
Food safety monitors in Hunan province found high levels of the carcinogen 'benzoapyrene' in 42 tons of Camellia oil - an expensive, nutrition-rich oil used for cooking in China – but suppressed the news to maintain social stability. The cover-up caused deep anger on the internet where news of the impending scandal was leaked two weeks ago by a micro-blogging site, despite denials from the manufacturer, the Hunan Jinhao Camellia Oil Corporation.
<!-- BEFORE ACI --> The company initially dismissed the claims as rumours. However this week it backed down in the face of mounting media pressure, confirming that a batch of its oil had been found to be contaminated. In a statement on its website, the company confessed it "did not inform the public about the sub-standard products in time and did not inform people thoroughly about the recall process."
Of the 42 tons manufactured between March and April this year 22 tons had been impounded by the Hunan authorities, 11 tons recalled from shelves but nine tons were still in circulation, the Beijing News reported. Consumers in China are still scarred by the memory of the 2008 tainted milk scandal during which it became clear that officials and companies had suppressed the news in order to avoid embarrassment in the run up to the Beijing Olympic Games.
At least six infants were killed and more than 300,000 fell seriously ill as a result of unscrupulous farmers and milk dealers using the industrial chemical melamine to give the milk the appearance of having a higher protein content. China's central government has repeatedly promised to be transparent with the public about food safety scandals which are caused by corruption and lax supervision of its giant food industry, but the failure to live up to those promises has resulted in a crisis of public confidence.
Last month China's ministry of health moved swiftly to quash claims that a brand of milk powder was causing infants to grow breasts, publishing test results proving the milk was not contaminated with excessive amounts of female sex hormones. However within days of the results being published families who had raised the alarm over the milk gave interviews to the Chinese media saying they simply did not believe the government's findings.
