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Cracking down on recycled gunk and cooking oil
By Sean Maguire |
April 26, 2010, Monday
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ONE of the seldom seen works of Kazuo Ishiguro, author of "The Remains of The Day," is a play called "The Gourmet."
The eponymous lead character is driven by his highly developed epicurean sensibilities to engage in a series unceasingly bizarre taste experiences.
Half-way through this rather eccentric quest he decides to sample the contents of the refuse bin at the back of his favorite restaurant in the hope of arriving at a novel taste experience based upon the serendipitous combination of random flavors.
Outre' as this may seem, it would appear that this is a culinary experience that countless small restauranters and street food vendors have been serving up for a while.
Recycled cooking oil is the ingredient of choice for those wishing to make a fast buck and recent studies suggest that these cooking oils have distinctly unsavory origins. Most of the stuff comes from food waste left over from restaurant diners.
The process involves a relatively simple process of filtration, heating, precipitation and separation, and typically takes only a matter of hours to complete.
The recycled oil is typically either sold in its raw state to restaurants or blended with peanut, soya or corn oil, depending on how much customers are prepared to pay. Eateries providing spicy foods tend to opt for the former as it is in the nature of the cuisine that it is apt to disguise the unconventional taste of the recycled oils used in their preparation.
The Shanghai authorities have made greater efforts than most to deal with the problem. The city has authorized 43 companies to remove food waste from the city's restaurants and has licensed another 19 to collect grease meal and oil.
Yet the problem remains that some of these companies have sub-contracted out, leaving collection and disposal in the hands of less accountable bodies.
According to official statistics, a first tier city will produce 1,000 to 1,500 tons of food waste per day, of which 40 tons is gunk-based waste, but only 29 tons is collected and disposed of through authorized channels.
It comes down to money, of course. Local governments charge a fee for the collection and disposal of restaurant swill and many small restauranters are unwilling to cough up, whereas the alternative - selling the kitchen waste to illegal recyclers - can generate income.
Even the better restaurants are not immune to the efforts of gunk pirates who have no scruples about raiding restaurant bins when the lights go out.
The issue raises serious health concerns; in particular, recycled oil contains a range of harmful chemicals, including aflatoxin, which is a known carcinogen.
So the next time you see the innocuous looking chap cycling around your neighborhood at restaurant chucking-out time, two little grease bins attached to the back of his bike, you know what he's been up to.
It seems likely that, unlike Ishiguro's gourmet, the reader will be able to resist the temptation to sample the contents of his cargo.
(The author is a lawyer at Allbright Law Firm. The views are his own. His email:sbjmaguire39@yahoo.co.uk)
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