Jinhao camellia oil was pulled from the shelves at a supermarket in Beijing on Thursday, September 2, 2010.

A well-known cooking oil manufacturing company based in Central China's Hunan Province was forced to admit Wednesday that several batches of its camellia oil contain excessive amounts of a cancer-causing substance, and about nine tons of the product are still available on the market.

The company Jinhao had reportedly been aware of its problematic oil products for five months but tried to cover it up until recently, when a number of media reports appeared exposing the scandal.

Jinhao reportedly issued a statement on its website last month assuring the public that their oil was safe and that questions over their products' quality were rumors, Beijing News reported. The statement was later removed.

A statement published on Jinhao's website Wednesday said that the company had produced nine batches of camellia oil totaling 42.458 tons from December 2009 to March this year containing excessive amounts of benzo (a) pyrene (BaP), a kind of chemical that can pose great risks to people's health if used excessively.

The BaP level in the recalled oil was five to six times higher than the standard level.