Melamine-tainted milk, rat meat sold as lamb, recycled cooking oil sourced from restaurant waste or even sewers, rice containing poisonous heavy metals: food safety scandals were extraordinarily frequent in China in the first 15 years of the 21st century. But in the last few years, there have been far fewer such reports, thanks, apparently, to increased regulation and inspections.
However, in early July, the Beijing News, a state newspaper, reported on fuel tanker trucks being used to transport cooking oil. A little later in the month, business news organization Caixin found that fuel tanker ships were similarly also being used to transport cooking oil. Chinese consumers have been panic-buying artisanal cooking oil in response, while censors have been working overtime to suppress Internet discussion of the scandal.
Are these incidents outliers after several years of crackdowns on unsafe food handling practices? Or does the relative rarity of public food safety scandals reflect improved censorship more than improved regulation? What are the challenges for the government in ensuring a healthy, safe food supply for China? What are Chinese consumers saying about their food, and what should they know about what they are eating? —The Editors
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