Alarm raised over swill food oil
By Alexa Olesen |
July 21, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINESE call it "gutter oil" - a foul slop fished up from sewage drains or collected at restaurant back doors - and it's being used in many of the country's small eateries.
Recycled food oil is China's latest food-safety scandal that has worried consumers and brought fresh promises of government action.
China's Cabinet, the State Council, issued an order on Monday that said the black-market trade posed "serious potential food safety risks." It vowed to crack down on "refined restaurant waste finding its way back to dinner tables through illegal channels."
Qin Xiong, a former chef who owns a small Sichuan-style restaurant in Beijing, denies being involved in the trade but says he has seen barrels of food waste and oil being carted out of big restaurants and hotels in the city nightly.
"The waste is usually held in filthy round metal barrels, each containing about 25 kilograms," Qin told the Associated Press. They filter the waste into slop for pigs and oil that is resold, he said.
Industry experts said the recycled oil could have carcinogens and traces of aflatoxin, a potentially deadly mold.
"There's only a slim chance that you will be poisoned immediately afterwards if you eat this 'gutter oil,'" said Zheng Fengtian, a food safety expert at Renmin University in Beijing. "The biggest problem is that after eating this overcooked oil, people could - though some don't - develop cancer in 10 or 20 years."
Recycled oil is likely most widely used at the places where most Chinese eat - hole-in-the-wall restaurants tucked into alleys or set up by the roadside that serve homestyle fare on Formica tables set with soy sauce and plastic-wrapped chopsticks. Particularly dangerous is hot pot where eaters dip meat, fish or vegetables into a vat of bubbling oil at the table.
The State Council said inspectors would target edible oil trade fairs and wholesale markets. It called for inspections of oil being used at restaurants, school cafeterias, work canteens and kitchens at construction sites.
It said businesses that use recycled oil would be forced to close temporarily or lose their business license. Peddlers who sell the oil could be criminally prosecuted, it said.
Recycled food oil is China's latest food-safety scandal that has worried consumers and brought fresh promises of government action.
China's Cabinet, the State Council, issued an order on Monday that said the black-market trade posed "serious potential food safety risks." It vowed to crack down on "refined restaurant waste finding its way back to dinner tables through illegal channels."
Qin Xiong, a former chef who owns a small Sichuan-style restaurant in Beijing, denies being involved in the trade but says he has seen barrels of food waste and oil being carted out of big restaurants and hotels in the city nightly.
"The waste is usually held in filthy round metal barrels, each containing about 25 kilograms," Qin told the Associated Press. They filter the waste into slop for pigs and oil that is resold, he said.
Industry experts said the recycled oil could have carcinogens and traces of aflatoxin, a potentially deadly mold.
"There's only a slim chance that you will be poisoned immediately afterwards if you eat this 'gutter oil,'" said Zheng Fengtian, a food safety expert at Renmin University in Beijing. "The biggest problem is that after eating this overcooked oil, people could - though some don't - develop cancer in 10 or 20 years."
Recycled oil is likely most widely used at the places where most Chinese eat - hole-in-the-wall restaurants tucked into alleys or set up by the roadside that serve homestyle fare on Formica tables set with soy sauce and plastic-wrapped chopsticks. Particularly dangerous is hot pot where eaters dip meat, fish or vegetables into a vat of bubbling oil at the table.
The State Council said inspectors would target edible oil trade fairs and wholesale markets. It called for inspections of oil being used at restaurants, school cafeterias, work canteens and kitchens at construction sites.
It said businesses that use recycled oil would be forced to close temporarily or lose their business license. Peddlers who sell the oil could be criminally prosecuted, it said.
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