ALTHOUGH the newly released national food safety standards for edible oils officially came into force Friday, some edible oil brands sold in Shenzhen have yet to renew their labels to disclose the ratio of oil components, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported yesterday.

Released by the National Health Commission and the State Administration for Market Regulation, the new standards specify that the labels of edible blended oils, such as peanut oil and olive oil, shall be uniformly changed to edible blended vegetable oil and must be marked with the ratio of oil components.

On a field visit to the market, the reporter from the Daily found that well-known oil brands like COFCO and Mighty had taken the initiative to make their product labels informative, with detailed information about the formulation and ingredients.

Edible oil manufacturers are also encouraged to indicate any fatty acid content above 2 percent in their product information.

However, a number of oil products still don’t have standardized labels. Some have updated the ingredient ratio, but the labels remain unchanged. While some have changed the labels, there is no information about the actual ingredient ratio on the ingredient list.

According to Dong Jianping, director of the office of the Futian wholesale market of agricultural products, most of the edible oils sold in the market still have the original packaging and labels, and those with the new labels will gradually enter the market.

He added that the new standards for edible oils mainly affect oil manufacturers and have little impact on sellers. The prices of edible oils remain stable at present.

Food experts also suggest that after the implementation of the new standards, consumers should look carefully at the ingredient lists when deciding on purchases and select the blended oils that meet their needs.

(Zhang Yu)