If you plan to eat out in China...

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I literally lol'ed

It should have to be labeled as cloaca oil.

MAN, WHAT THE f**k?

After reading this I wonder where generic cooking oil sold in bottles at the store comes from :s
This really makes me question oil because sometimes it tastes disgusting the moment it's opened if it's the cheap, generic kind especially. All the more reason to stay clear of it. Who knows what's really in it :s

I highly doubt they do. There's easier ways to make more money than importing illegal cooking oil from China. The biggest scam Chinese restaurant owners around here do is buy people's EBT food stamp cards and use them to buy food for the restaurant.

The trouble with an unregulated marketplace is that it is overwhelmingly tilted in favour of the lowest price, and the lowest price is secured, by sourcing cheap inputs (whether materials or labour), and using cheap production (e.g. cutting corners).

In theory, the market can respond to unsanitary conditions in food retailers by taking their money elsewhere. The reality is that this rarely happens in an unregulated market. The front of the store is kept (relatively) clean, and the diners may be unaware of the impact that the conditions in the back have on them until much later--when the suspect establishment can no longer be identified.

If we all agree that a food service establishment ought not to be offering food for human consumption in circumstances like these, the question then becomes, how should it be curtailed? Are we content to let the market and word of mouth eliminate these practices? How long will we wait? Does this cross the line such that we are comfortable with government stepping in with the full weight of the law? If so, then where does that line exist.

We seem to spend a long time focused on extremes. "I want health and safety protected at all costs!" "I want government to stay completely out of my life!" "Think of the children!" "Nanny state!" At what point will we stand back and take a more nuanced view?

On a brighter note, this is actually a really good way to make biodiesel fuel. I mean, turn the frown upside down, right? It's actually really smart, use all the animal scraps too, I've not heard that discussed with American biodiesel manufacturing. It's all about corn and soy here, cuz that makes money for certain people.

That makes more sense. But why does so much oil end up in the sewer? Why don't they just have people collect used cooking oil directly?

Not for eating and tbh it angers me when I order food someplace, not just an Asian restaurant, anyplace, and it has that rancid aftertaste. I really hate that. I have had plenty of awesome tasting Asian food too, btw.

It is good for biodiesel but this isn't fuel, they are putting food in it and qualities matters.

Oh I know, I'm just saying, this practice could easily be reformed to be turned into biodiesel instead of cooking oil. The profit margins would be a tad lower than cooking oil, as cooking oil goes for more money per gallon than diesel usually does (except some places with very high taxes like Britain sometimes.)

I mean, I think this is smart, using scraps to make oil, just obviously not for human consumption. I guess this is like the whole "drug dealers could be really good legitimate businessmen" type thing.

If only...

I dont think so I live in the SF Bay area and have been eating chinese food for years and it hasnt gotten me sick. Either they dont use gutter oil or im immune to it. I have eaten chinese food from the 99 markets as well.

I got a bottle of cooking oil from the dollar isle.When went to use it it smelled funky,like old rancid oil.It was suppose to be from India,or that's what the label said.Maybe it was made in the PRC but packaged in India.

I dunno that's what worries me. Some of the really cheap oil is just weird even when it's brand new, right out of the bottle. I have heard of generic oil always going rancid before the name brands but not usually before it's opened :S

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil heres more info on gutter oil.

Yeah, I did some reading. It's not quite as cut and dry as the video makes it seem. The oil seems to mostly be diverted industrial oil (they apparently already did my grand idea...) Which has happened before even in Europe, just not with recycled oil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_oil_syndrome So the problem is less how do you stop the practice of making it, because it's fine for industrial use, and more how do you regulate food oil manufacturers and businesses enough? Oddly China is pretty weird. Despite accepting bribes at the local level for this type of stuff, their courts don't f**k around, and most of the "kingpins" in these food scamming things end up getting life in prison or the death penalty.

But on a side note, I watched a slideshow of the gutter oil production from a legitimate company, and it's really neat. They actually get food waste and use the waste food to power the furnace used to heat the oil up. It's really neat. The other problem, too, is motor oil. Sometimes gutter oil has motor oil in it.

Still, this strikes ideas in the USA. If food waste could be sorted and sold, you could really do a lot with it. We waste like 1/3 of our food anyway.

Food waste is often fed to farm animals. Especially dairy and feedlot cattle.