30 Oct 2013

Chinese Street Food Made From 'Gutter Oil'

china slop gutter oilBy Mamta Badkar: The next time you consider eating Chinese street food you might think twice.
The use of gutter oil it turns out is pretty common. This refers to a process of pulling waste oil from sewers, grease traps, waste from slaughterhouses, reprocessing it and then selling it as cooking oil.
These screenshots from a Radio Free Asia (RFA) video via Max Fisher at The Washington Post show a woman in Shenzhen pulling "slop" from a gutter.
The "slop" then ends up in "processing" plants where it is processed with other animal fat through filtration or boiling.
The oil eventually make its way to "street vendors and hole-in-the-wall restaurants" that use it as "recycled cooking oil." Watch the entire video below:



Gutter oil is reported to account for one-tenth of cooking oil in China, according to experts cited by RFA. Besides being downright disgusting, the oil is also said to contain carcinogens and other toxins.
China has been fighting the practice for years. Earlier this month a man from China's Jiangsu province was sentenced to life in prison for making and selling gutter oil, Xinhua reported.
China has long battled food safety concerns. But in a country where cooking oil is at a premium, it will likely be a while before officials can effectively crack down on the practice.

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