CHINA: Authorities detain 32 people for recycling and selling tonnes of cooking oil dredged from gutters behind restaurants

Record ID: 345089

  • Title: CHINA: Authorities detain 32 people for recycling and selling tonnes of cooking oil dredged from gutters behind restaurants
  • Date: 15th September 2011
  • Summary: BEIJING, CHINA (SEPTEMBER 14, 2011) (REUTERS) SPOON POURING OIL TO PAN CHEF CHEF COOKING BOTTLES OF OIL IN KITCHEN PEOPLE WALKING ON STREETS (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) 23-YEAR-OLD ZHAO SHAOJIE SAYING: "This is common problem in Chinese society. Many small business vendors are using gutter oil. I don't really eat at those places any more. It feels the oil they use to cook is not hygienic. So I only go to standard restaurants. Though it's a bit more expensive, it's good for my health." (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) 69-YEAR-OLD SANG GUONIAN SAYING: "The gutter oil is disgusting. I think many young people fail to pay enough attention to the gutter oil, our elder people are very alert in it." PEOPLE EATING IN RESTAURANT WOMAN EATING FOOD IN PLATE MARKET BOTTLES OF COOKING OIL ON SHELF BOTTLES OF COOKING OIL
  • Embargoed: 30th September 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China, China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA84S1M3JTE0FU2FY7E1C5HNMSW
  • Story Text: Chinese authorities detained 32 people for making and selling tonnes of recycled cooking oil dredged from gutters, state media reported on Tuesday (September 13), in the latest food safety scandal to rock the country.
    Police confiscated more than 100 tonnes of "gutter oil" -- used cooking oil fished from drains behind restaurants -- in a crackdown on a criminal network that operated in 14 provinces, the Ministry of Public Security said on its website.
    There have been scandals with cooking oil safety in China in recent years, and pictures of oil being scooped up from drains have circulated widely online.
    Following the clues, police started investigating the criminal chain of refining and selling gutter oil in March, and revealed a hidden factory producing such toxic oil in eastern China's Zhejiang Province and a biological company selling it in Shandong Province after months of underground work, Chinese state television said.
    With suspects under custody, the ministry further pledged to eliminate China's "gutter oil" market from its root, the report added.
    Concerned about the wide use of gutter oil, many citizens,like Zhao Shaojie, chose to dine at standard restaurants.
    "This is common problem in Chinese society. Many small business vendors are using gutter oil. I don't really eat at those places any more. It feels the oil they use to cook is not hygienic. So I only go to standard restaurants. Though it's a bit more expensive, it's good for my health," said the 23-year-old.
    Sixty-nine-year-old Sang Guonian warned that young people need to be careful.
    "The gutter oil is disgusting. I think many young people fail to pay enough attention to the gutter oil, our elder people are very alert in it," he said.
    China has been struggling to rein in the health safety violations in the unruly and vast food sector despite tough punishments and repeated vows to crackdown on the problem.
    Since July, Chinese courts have sentenced at least a dozen people to jail, including one person who received a suspended death sentence, for their roles in producing or selling pork tainted with toxic chemicals.
    In 2008, at least six children died and nearly 300,000 fell ill from drinking milk made laced with melamine powder, an industrial compound added to milk to give misleadingly high results in protein tests
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