China Gutter Oil Crackdown: Police Detain People, Seize Tons Of Illegally Recycled Kitchen Oil

BEIJING -- Chinese police have detained 32 people in a nationwide crackdown on "gutter oil," or old kitchen oil that has been illegally recycled, authorities said Tuesday.

The campaign is part of an effort to clean up China's food safety record following several embarrassing scandals, including deadly infant formula and pork tainted with clenbuterol, a banned chemical that makes pork leaner but is harmful to humans.

The Ministry of Public Security said in a statement on its website that police had seized 100 tons (90 metric tons) of the potentially harmful oil in 14 provinces.

It said six workshops were closed, including one operated by Jinan Green Bio Oil Co., a business that claimed to be turning kitchen oil into fuel but that was actually churning out recycled cooking oil that it passed off as new.

Recycled oil can contain carcinogens and traces of aflatoxin, a potentially deadly mold.

"Not only did we destroy a criminal chain that was illegally turning gutter oil into food oil, we also unveiled the greed of the criminals and pulled back the curtain on the immoral acts of those producing this poisonous and harmful food oil," the statement said.

It didn't specify what charges the 32 people in detention would face or say when the crackdown started.

Last year, the State Council, China's Cabinet, said businesses that use recycled oil would be forced to close temporarily or lose their business license and that peddlers who sell the oil could be criminally prosecuted.

In recent years, Chinese consumers have been horrified by a series of food safety scandals, including fish treated with cancer-causing antimicrobials, eggs colored with industrial dye and fake liquor that can cause blindness or death. Milk and infant formula laced with the industrial chemical melamine killed six children and sickened 300,000 in 2008.

The government responded by enacting a tough food safety law in 2009 that promised harsh penalties for makers of tainted products.

Comments

[Saulan]

11:03 PM on 09/20/2011

A Chinese reporter following the story has been stabbed to death.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/chinese-journalist-following-gutter-oil-scandal-is-found-dead/

[rMatey]

03:26 PM on 09/14/2011

Thank God. They were sure to try and sell us that crap.

[Howard Scott Pearlman 59]

01:11 PM on 09/14/2011

Upton Sinclair's book " The Jungle " should be required reading in all High Schools !

Regulate Baby Regulate !

[Howard Scott Pearlman 59]

01:05 PM on 09/14/2011

No wonder George W Bush's Brother and Uncle have so many deals in corrupt China !

I wonder how much of this stuff was exported to the US and other countries ?

[djv1255]

10:59 AM on 09/14/2011

Quote: "Recycled oil can contain carcinogens and traces of aflatoxin, a potentially deadly mold."

See all you HufferPuffers that support using cooking oil as fuel are ignoring this part of the story.

[huntingtreasures]

11:40 AM on 09/14/2011

Did you read the story or skim over it Quote: "Recycled oil can contain carcinogen­s and traces of aflatoxin, a potentiall­y deadly mold." that is they are taking old oil and cleaning it and using it to COOK WITH not for fuel when made into bio fuel its safe unless you cook your food in it like a deep fryer cooking.

[djv1255]

12:25 PM on 09/14/2011

Quote: "Jinan Green Bio Oil Co., a business that claimed to be turning kitchen oil into fuel"

So if the Jinan Green Bio Oil Co had actually turned it into fuel, carcinogen­­s and mold would have been removed.

[Dragontech]

02:02 PM on 09/14/2011

If you had read the story, you'd see that the illegal recyclers were using the poisonous moldy oil as FOOD OIL not fuel oil. It is perfectly safe to burn as bio-diesel but not safe to eat.

[SonyaInTx]

04:28 AM on 09/14/2011

.....And WalMart is full of frozen food imported from China.....

[Inannawhimsey]

01:30 AM on 09/14/2011

That's why the Sino like to use Recycled Kitten Oil. Goes down smoooooth.

[Dragontech]

02:04 PM on 09/14/2011

Recycled KITTEN oil? I didn't see anything about kitten oil in there, but EWWW

[Inannawhimsey]

02:20 PM on 09/14/2011

*chuckle* That's how my mind works...

Gotta love that developing country, China -- always at the forefront of the Green Economy, such strange alternate fuels.

[Kenz300]

08:47 PM on 09/13/2011

Quote -- " The campaign is part of an effort to clean up China's food safety record following several embarrassing scandals, including deadly infant formula and pork tainted with clenbuterol, a banned chemical that makes pork leaner but is harmful to humans."
----------------------------------------------------------

This could happen here. The Republicans want to end the EPA and all other government agencies.

Republicans say business can regulate themselves.

Republicans are too extreme.

[Dragontech]

02:06 PM on 09/14/2011

Actually, that threat would be for weakening the FDA, not the EPA, but it's all good as the Ratpublican'ts want to weaken them too. Anything that puts limits on the harm business can do in the name of profits, the GOP-brains are against.

[DAE]

07:15 PM on 09/13/2011

Most of the food and occupational safety scandals emanating from China (and other developing and developed countries) are due to a lack of regulatory authority, poor regulatory standards, lack of enforcement and/or corruption. As this story shows China needs more of the first three and less of the last. From what I've read the Chinese government is fully aware of these problems and is working to overcome them. Its no easy task in as large and diverse a country as China. We are very fortunate having the regulatory agencies that we have. They need to be further enhanced not dismantled. China understands this. Why don't we?

[Obrand]

08:30 PM on 09/13/2011

Well, we are divided. We Democrats understand this.
It's the other party that doesn't seem to grasp the ramifications of going after all those bad regulations interfering with their almighty profit.

[DAE]

08:56 PM on 09/13/2011

True, but many of the agencies under question were actually initiated under Republican administrations and Democrats are too quick to compromise. We, collectively, seem to think there is some sort of contradiction between job growth and regulation when there isn't. No one wants needless regulations. That's a red herring to try to discredit necessary rules and regs established to protect us from ourselves.

[SpiralSD]

07:04 PM on 09/13/2011

This is one of the reasons that a government should exist. The people can't always trust businesses to do the right thing...Too much government is also bad though.

[Michael Scarborough]

08:33 PM on 09/13/2011

I'd rather deal with the problem of too much government than the problem of being dead from food poisoning. Does a person really have to be a liberal to figure that one out?

[SpiralSD]

11:16 PM on 09/13/2011

First of all, did I write that government shouldn't exist? In fact, I wrote the exact opposite.

Just because a government is big, does not mean that you are automatically safe. The FDA has made numerous questionable judgements regarding the safety of products, especially medications. Also, don't assume that the category of "unfortunate events resulting from governments" applies only to your personal health.

[Dragontech]

02:07 PM on 09/14/2011

Apparently

[Kev Bat]

06:20 PM on 09/13/2011

This is the EPA , USDA model for the GOP !

[WoollyMittens]

04:34 PM on 09/13/2011

This is what happens if you deregulate, or in China if the enforcement of the rules can be bought and sold.

[Jorge Escondido]

06:29 PM on 09/13/2011

Right, deregulation in communist china, I bet you really like the looks of that system, I bet all you huffpuffers do.

[blackwind]

08:04 PM on 09/13/2011

Judging from the tone of WoollyMittens' post, I'd say (s)he doesn't like the looks of that system.

[Obrand]

08:34 PM on 09/13/2011

Yea, I think WoollyMittens was comparing Republican efforts to deregulate.
And maybe a little Perry $5,000 payola :-)