The standards system for oilseeds and edible oils is becoming increasingly complete in China
Edible vegetable oil is a daily necessity for the people, and its quality and safety concern the national economy and people's livelihood. In recent years, laws and regulations such as the Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Law and the Food Safety Law have been introduced, and the agricultural industry standards system for oilseeds and fats is becoming increasingly complete, which has significantly improved the quality level of oilseeds and edible vegetable oils in China, and brought safety hazards under control at the source.
Demand for edible oil consumption is growing rapidly
In recent years, China's production and consumption of edible vegetable oil have shown the following trends: First, oilseed output has remained stable while consumption has grown rapidly. Looking at data from the past five years, China's edible vegetable oil consumption reached 28.164 million tons in 2013, an increase of 26.6% compared with 22.237 million tons in 2009, and per capita consumption was 22.8kg, an increase of 22.6% compared with 18.6kg in 2009. However, China's oilseed output has remained at around 58 million tons in recent years, and the growth rate of edible vegetable oil consumption is far higher than the growth rate of oilseed production and supply. Second, dependence on edible vegetable oil imports has increased. At present, China ranks first in the world in oilseed imports and second in the world in edible vegetable oil imports. Third, edible vegetable oil processing shows the coexisting characteristics of large-scale groupization and small-scale localization with special features. Relying on several major oilseed crop production areas such as the Northeast soybean production area, the Yangtze River Basin, and the main rapeseed production areas in the west, the oil and fat production capacity of the top 10 crushing groups, including Yihai Kerry, COFCO Group, Jiusan Group, and Chinatex Oils & Fats, accounts for about 70% of the national capacity; in oilseed production areas for double-low rapeseed, sesame, and others, some small and medium-sized enterprises use low-temperature pressing for local processing, effectively retaining the flavor and nutritional components of the oilseeds and meeting people's demand for specialty flavored oils such as sesame oil.
Safety risks require full-process monitoring
The quality and safety hazards of edible vegetable oil may come from every stage of oilseed crop cultivation, harvesting, storage, processing, sales, and consumption: 1. Natural toxin contamination: including natural toxins such as aflatoxin and zearalenone produced during the cultivation, harvesting, storage, and processing of oilseed crops; 2. Pesticide residues such as herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, defoliants, and plant growth regulators; 3. Heavy metal contamination: mainly from heavy metal accumulation during oilseed cultivation and heavy metal migration from production equipment during oil processing; 4. Benzopyrene, trans fatty acids, and excessive solvent residues from extracted oil produced during oil processing, toxic and harmful substances formed during high-temperature frying, and increases in acid value and peroxide value caused by oil oxidation and rancidity during storage; 5. Illegal addition and adulteration: illegal addition and adulteration have been the main causes of edible oil safety incidents in recent years.
The above hidden risks of edible vegetable oil are completely controllable in the process of standardized production. First, consumers should be encouraged to consume edible oil scientifically, for example, high-temperature frying oil should not be used for a long time; in summer, it is not advisable to purchase too much edible oil to store at home. From the perspective of oilseed and fat production and government supervision, technical specifications for production area environment, production technology, and the use of inputs such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides should be formulated and adopted in a systematic and strict manner during oilseed production; during collection and storage, materials should be dried in a timely manner and protected from rain, mold, and insects; during processing, raw material quality control should be strict, removing impurities such as insect-damaged kernels and moldy kernels, and oil detoxification and toxin-reduction technologies should be used when necessary; during safe storage of oils and fats, high temperatures and external contamination should be avoided to prevent rancidity; during circulation, law enforcement departments should strictly supervise and regulate, and use advanced testing technologies to crack down on illegal addition and adulteration.
The quality control standards system is complete
In response to the quality and safety hazards of edible vegetable oil and the needs for process control and supervision, China has researched and formulated a relatively systematic technical standards system for full-process quality control of oilseed crops. In terms of the oilseed quality and safety standards system, China has researched and formulated a systematically matched full-process quality control standards system for double-low rapeseed, peanut, and soybean. Taking double-low rapeseed as an example, through systematic research on key quality control technologies such as double-low rapeseed seed breeding, prevention and removal of trace pollen, removal of inferior and foreign materials, production area environmental conditions, balanced formula fertilization, increased application of boron and potassium fertilizers, isolated contiguous planting, and sclerotinia control, a quality-preserving cultivation technology for quality control in the double-low rapeseed production process was established; and based on the differences in soil, climate, varieties, and farming systems among the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in different main rapeseed production areas and the layout of advantageous double-low rapeseed regions, agricultural industry standards matched across the entire pre-production, mid-production, and post-production quality control system for double-low rapeseed were formulated, realizing the standardization of the achievements of quality control and quality-preserving cultivation technology for double-low rapeseed, standardizing technical contents such as the grading and classification of double-low rapeseed seeds and the determination of glucosinolates, erucic acid, oil content, and amino acids, and building a full-process quality control technical standards system for double-low rapeseed from pre-production seed source quality control technology, to mid-production production area environment and sclerotinia control, quality-preserving cultivation production technology, and post-production double-low rapeseed product quality and supporting testing methods.
In terms of edible vegetable oil quality standards, major vegetable oils all have strict quality standards, and there are clear requirements for the quality and safety indicators of rapeseed oil, peanut oil, soybean oil, cottonseed oil, sunflower seed oil, camellia seed oil, sesame oil, corn oil, rice bran oil, linseed oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil, walnut oil, grape seed oil, prickly ash seed oil, olive oil, safflower seed oil, and others. In addition, in terms of the use of food additives, clear provisions are made for the use and limits of antioxidants such as BHT, BHA, and TBHQ; at the same time, maximum limit standards and corresponding testing technology method standards have been formulated for pollutants such as heavy metals and pesticide residues, providing strong technical support for determining the quality and safety of edible vegetable oils.