A customer checks out edible oil in a supermarket in Jiujiang, East China's Jiangxi Province. Photo: IC

Yihai Kerry Group, an agribusiness unit of Singapore-based Wilmar International in China, and one of China's largest grains and oil processors, refuted a media report about the group's involvement in a gutter oil scandal and called the report a major mistake on Thursday.

Yihai Kerry Group told the Global Times in an e-mail on Thursday that the reporter in the report mistook the company's subsidiary Kerry Oleochemical Industrial (Tianjin) Co, a chemical processor of waste oil, with another of Yihai Kerry Group's subsidiaries which is located next to it, oil processor Kerry Oils & Grains (Tianjin).

Kerry Oleochemical Industrial (Tianjin) Co had purchased animal fats from Shijiazhuang in North China's Hebei Province and stores it in an oil tank to produce an ingredient to be used to manufacture soap.

"This batch of animal fats has nothing to do with Kerry Oils & Grains (Tianjin), and has absolutely no way of entering the edible oil [production] area," the company wrote.

The company's statement came after a video report by news portal people.com.cn on Wednesday.

The report said that gutter oil collected from restaurants in Beijing and neighboring Hebei Province was processed and later transported by a logistics company to Yihai Kerry Oils & Grains (Tianjin), a subsidiary of Yihai Kerry Group.

As one of the largest grain and oil processors in China, Yihai Kerry is best known for its dominant cooking oil brand Arowana, which reportedly has about 45 percent of the domestic market share.

Apart from supplying cooking oil in retail markets, the company is also a major supplier of oil to domestic instant noodle makers.

Many netizens posted messages on their Tweeter-like Weibo accounts on Thursday expressing shock at hearing this news.

"The company's drivers have been summoned to the public security bureau to cooperate with the investigation on this matter," an official surnamed Zhang of Tianjin-based Jinzhengyang Logistics Co, which is the transporter of the alleged waste oil to Yihai Kerry, told the Global Times on Thursday.  

Zhang said that what they transported was animal fat, not gutter oil according to their transportation records, though the company transported it in a tank marked with the words "edible oil," which was intended to make the transportation easier without requiring frequent safety checks.

Detrimental to health, gutter oil, which is oil collected from restaurants' waste, sometimes literally from gutters, and can end up back on diners' tables after industrial processing, has been the public's top concern regarding food safety in China in recent years.

China's State Council passed a draft amendment to the country's Food Safety Law on Wednesday and will submit it to the nation's legislators for review, calling on a strengthened effort to fight against violators who ignore food safety and endanger the public.