Mainland halts imports of edible oil from Taiwan

The Chinese mainland has suspended edible oil imports from Taiwan-based edible oil producer Cheng I Food Co to prevent its low-quality oil from entering the mainland market, the nation's top quality watchdog announced over the weekend.

Cheng I, a subsidiary of Ting Hsin International Group, a Taiwan-owned food manufacturer with a broad production base in China, was found to have sold lard oil mixed with animal feed on Thursday, according to a Xinhua News Agency report Saturday.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement posted on its website Saturday that no lard oil has been shipped into the mainland market from Taiwan since 2013.

Chinese customers used to buy Cheng I lard oil from taobao.com, a popular customer-to-customer online shopping site in China.

But now such products have been removed from the platform.

A staff member from Cheng I in charge of operating the hotline set up to handle refund of products after the lard scandal, confirmed with the Global Times Sunday that the channel for mainland customers to return goods has not been established, as lard oil produced by the company has not been sold in the mainland market via official channels.

Taiwan's public health authority said on Thursday that the 363 involved downstream enterprises must independently report the progress on Friday and all 68 kinds of lard oil produced by Cheng I must be removed from shelves in Taiwan before Sunday, Hong Kong-based newspaper Ta Kung Pao reported on Friday.

It's not the first time that a lard oil scandal has caused an uproar.

Taiwan authorities announced in September that at least 240 tons of gutter oil - which refers to oil recycled from animal by-products and restaurant waste - mixed into lard oil was circulating on the market at that time.

Lin Guijun, vice president of the University of International Business and Economics, thought that the inspection and quarantine system for imported food was working effectively.

Besides, there are only a few imported edible animal oil products in the mainland market, as the production cost of labor-intensive industries such as edible animal oil in the mainland is lower than that in Taiwan, Lin told the Global Times Sunday.

The edible animal oil is not on the list of primary imported items of the mainland published monthly by the General Administration of Customs. The imports of edible vegetable oil reached 470,000 tons in August.