April 5, 2012
Recycled cooking oil risks China's food security
Shocking photos of cooking oil produced from garbage, food scraps and even dead animals collected from investigations have been released into black-market by China's national media.
China has a large and pervasive underground market for purchasing, delivering, and manufacturing illegal cooking oil. Digou oil -- variously translated as "sewage oil," "gutter oil," or "ditch oil"-- is commonly extracted through boiling and refining garbage or leftover foods. Oils released through this rudimentary processing are then skimmed off and collected.
It is later sold to restaurant and hotel kitchens or street vendors for meal preparation, often through third-party retailers.
Most people who use the substance turn to digou oil to cut costs, and buy it from illegal sources.
The disturbing phenomenon has been a leading story in China recently, making headlines even in a country where scandals related to food safety have become commonplace.
Chinese citizens remain deeply concerned. Their country has been continuously producing embarrassing stories related to poor quality and criminal negligence in food production.
In an operation on Tuesday (Apr 3), the Chinese Public Security Bureau, or state police, shut down 13 black market operations across six provinces, arresting more than 100 people. More than 3,200 tonnes of the rancid oil were confiscated and destroyed.
The recent event, however, marked a completely new development in the digou oil story.
Bo Xuejun, a public order vice-brigade chief at Jinhua municipal police in Zhejiang province, told Chinese investigative reporters that some operations were producing oil by boiling "spoilt beef, pork, and lamb collected from rotten animal carcasses, skins, and internal organs," collected and bought from local slaughterhouses.
Hua Jingfeng, a vice-bureau chief of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, told Chinese reporters that the problem of digou oil stems from "a lack of development in China's treatment of garbage and waste."
