Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2013, and the news it reports on gutter oil in China was current at that time; the status of enforcement against gutter oil in China may have changed since.
We are sorry to tell some people that when they say that in China oil is collected from the drains to be recycled, it is not a rumour, but a practice as common as taking a siesta in Spain.
The process is simple: the oil that gets poured down the drains is collected, processed by decanting (where it is processed together with other animal fats) and sold again as cooking oil to restaurants.
It is officially acknowledged that “gutter oil” has 10% of the cooking-oil market in China, so unofficially the percentage could be even higher.
Besides the whole process being truly revolting, experts say that gutter oil contains carcinogens and other toxins, so it could be potentially harmful to health.
Watch: the video on YouTube
Source: The Washington Post
China continues to be at the centre of real food safety scandals. In the case of gutter oil, the fight to end the practice led the Chinese government to sentence a businessman to life imprisonment for making and selling this oil, although according to some sources there is no sign that people have stopped collecting oil from the drains for use in restaurants.
See also: 14 “crazy” things that only happen in China
Featured image: 3uen3uen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
