Back in July 2024, China was faced with a major national PR disaster following a media campaign highlighting the unsafe transportation of edible oils, which revealed food safety issues such as poor enforcement despite transporters lacking permits and lenient penalties issued even when regulations were violated.
This prompted the government to kick off an in-depth study into food safety practices and standards required to safely transport liquid foods such as oil and alcohol, culminating in a new set of regulations that was recently announced by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR).
“These new regulations will govern the transportation of five major liquid food categories in China, specifying the need for specialised tank trucks and standardising the licensing procedures for this, clarifying the responsibilities of all involved parties including the product manufacturers and transporters,” SAMR Director of Food Safety Sun Huichuan said.
“There is now also a mandate for firms to implement traceability management throughout the entire transportation process, requiring the shipper, carrier, and consignee to truthfully and comprehensively record [all required] information at every step of the transportation process.”
This will require the involved parties to verify and confirm the contents of the manifest when it reaches them, which prevents the likelihood of any party shirking responsibility if problems arise.
The impact of this is not confined to Chinese companies alone, as the same standards also apply to any international brand or importer using tanker trucks transporting their products from port to warehouse/store within the country.
All companies dealing with the following five product categories will be impacted if using tanker trucks for transportation: Vegetable oils, condiments, alcoholic beverages, sugar, and starch sugars.
Affected subproducts:
Vegetable oils: Edible vegetable oil, blended vegetable oil, and crude vegetable oil
Condiments: Vinegar and cooking wine
Alcoholic beverages: Baijiu and its base spirit, wine and its base spirit, fermented fruit wine and its base spirit, and edible alcohol
Sugar syrups: Whole sucrose syrup and sucrose invert sugar syrup
Starch sugar syrups: High-fructose corn syrup, glucose syrup, and maltose syrup.
“The development of the food industry has seen a large increase in demand for the bulk transportation of these liquid foods,” Sun added.
“Tank trucks, with their large tank volumes, can transport large quantities of liquid foods at once, significantly reducing the number of trips and lowering transportation costs, thus have become essential to meet the needs of food companies for efficient transportation.”
All firms have been given until July 1 2026 to complete training and licensing. After this date, all operators without the permit will be banned from transporting foods in the five categories above, and subject to harsh penalties if found in violation of this mandate.
Who is responsible for what?
The new regulations focusing on establishing food safety responsibilities for three key roles: The shipper, the carrier/transporter, and the consignee.
“Here, shippers and consignees are required to only entrust [the products to] transport operators with valid permits, and [must] strictly verify the carrier’s permits and container certificates,” SAMR Food Production and Operation Department Director Si Guang clarified.
“Carriers are required to use compliant containers, carry valid container certificates, and are strictly prohibited from transporting substances other than food.”
Food manufacturers are not obligated per se to obtain their own licenses to have products transported via tanker trucks, but SAMR has warned against taking this as having permission to shirk responsibility.
“Considering industry realities and regulatory efficiency, we do not expect food producers using their own transport containers to obtain their own licenses, but this exemption from permits does not mean they are allowed relaxed supervision,” Si added.
“Even if owned by the producer, these transport containers and the transport process must comply with the requirements of relevant regulations and mandatory national standards.”
