Recently, a live broadcast room in mainland China was exposed for promoting fake walnut oil under the guise of “public welfare assistance to farmers”. The suppliers, including Sun and others, used regular soybean oil pretending it to be walnut oil, perilla seed oil, and other products, completing over 64,000 transactions in about six months with sales exceeding 3.1 million yuan.
According to reports from mainland Chinese media on September 27th, a live broadcast room named “People’s Supply and Marketing Society Guangping Supply and Marketing Society Selection” promoted a five-pound package of “Yikoufu” brand walnut oil, using “public welfare assistance to farmers” as a selling point.
The product ingredient list claimed to contain only walnuts, with the suggested retail price on the package being 298 yuan, but the anchor claimed the live broadcast room was selling it for only 39 yuan.
Inspections revealed that the palm acid content in one “Yikoufu” walnut oil was 10.8%, higher than the reference range of walnut oil at 2.2% to 10%. Palm acid is one of the indicators to distinguish the type of vegetable oil, abnormal values may suggest the product is mixed with other vegetable oils.
The investigation also found that the production company, address, and production permit information on the product packaging were all falsely labeled.
Subsequently, investigators found a filling spot in Xinghua, Jiangsu, with stacks of regular soybean oil on site. The person in charge of the spot, Sun, admitted that the so-called walnut oil sold in the live broadcast room was actually filled with regular soybean oil.
The spot also labeled the soybean oil as two brands of walnut oil and two types of perilla seed oil to deceive consumers. On-site, 2660 liters of soybean oil, 5128 empty bottles, over 10,000 label stickers, as well as 288 bottles of fake walnut oil and perilla seed oil ready for sale were seized.
According to mainland media reports, Sun did not obtain a food production permit. He was responsible for filling, while the intermediary Gu coordinated the live sales, and the anchor used language such as “public welfare assistance to farmers” and low-price promotions to attract consumers to place orders.
Sun and others completed over 64,000 transactions in about six months, with sales exceeding 3.1 million yuan. Market supervision personnel in Xinghua city estimated that the raw material cost of soybean oil used in each barrel of fake oil was around 7-8 yuan. The product was actually sold for 39.99 yuan per barrel, with the anchor receiving 9.2 to 9.6 yuan per transaction, and Gu receiving 1.2 to 1.6 yuan.
The related news sparked discussions among netizens. Some questioned why a walnut oil priced at hundreds of yuan was being sold for only a few tens of yuan, saying it sounded unreliable, and not understanding why so many people still placed orders.
Some netizens commented, saying, “Some people treat helping farmers as a business”, “Now everyone is running a business under the guise of emotions.” Others remarked, “Those who shop in live broadcast rooms are brave.” And there were reminders, “Don’t expect good quality for such cheap prices.”