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Business
Print Edition> Business
UPDATED: September 17, 2012 NO. 38 SEPTEMBER 20, 2012
Dirty Oil in the Gears
The government must do more to strengthen food and drug security
By Lan Xinzhen
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MANAGING DIRTY OIL: Workers at a waste disposal company in Shanghai collect gutter oil. Obstacles remain in preventing restaurants from using repurposed oil (PEI XIN)

Chinese like deep-fried food, and they also like stir-fried meat and vegetables. Oil is an indispensable part of Chinese cuisine, and China is the world's biggest consumer of edible oil.

There is also a large amount of oil found in kitchen refuse across the country, which is extracted and sold back on the market. "Recycled cooking oil," as it is known, is processed into soaps or biodiesel for industrial purpose.

This should have been conducive to environmental protection because it is recycling of wastes. However, some lawless persons reprocessed such oil and sell it to restaurants as cooking oil.

The dirty oil is believed to destroy white blood cells and the mucous membrane of the alimentary tract, causing food poisoning or even cancer.

Repurposed gutter oil has seriously undermined government efforts to strengthen food sanitation and safety and has drawn the attention of public security department. Police have already launched a crackdown on illegally reprocessed cooking oil. On September 13, 2011, the Ministry of Public Security, in command of some local public security departments, cracked the country's first case of producing edible oil with illegally reprocessed cooking oil, arresting 32 suspects who had allegedly produced gutter oil and sold it to restaurants in a number of provinces.

More than 100 tons of the oil was seized after police busted a criminal network spanning 14 provinces. Six illegal factories and two gutter oil production lines were demolished.

Those who produce edible oil from illegally reprocessed cooking oil will be charged for production of toxic or harmful foodstuff, and those who sell "edible oil" made of illegally reprocessed cooking oil will be charged for sale of toxic or harmful foodstuff.

On August 28, Ningbo Intermediate People's Court held hearings on the first case of illegally processing and selling gutter oil. However, the public found things are not as simple as a case of selling gutter oil as edible oil, because gutter oil has also been used as edible oil.

Many companies involved

According to the prosecutor of the Ningbo People's Procuratorate, Jinan Green Bio Oil Co. in Shandong Province produced gutter oil with recycled waste cooking oil, and Huikang Oil in Henan Province blended gutter oil purchased from the former with edible soybean oil and resold it to food and fodder makers and a pharmaceutical material company.

Huikang Oil's biggest client was Joincare Biotechnological Co. Ltd. in Jiaozuo, Henan Province, responsible for 50 percent of Huikang's sales volume. Joincare Biotechnological Co. Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Shanghai-listed Joincare Pharmaceutical Group Industry Co. Ltd. An ingredient made of gutter oil by Joincare has also been used in antibiotics.

The public has called on related government authorities to explain whether medicine composed of gutter oil is harmful and to publicize the list of 62 pharmaceutical companies involved in the gutter oil scandal.

The State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) said on its website that it had launched an investigation and had called on pharmaceutical companies to strictly check the quality of raw materials, audit raw material suppliers and stop the use of disqualified chemical materials. The Jiaozuo Municipal Government has also organized four investigative groups to look into Joincare's practices, with the participation of several departments involved in quality supervision, industrial and commercial administration and drug administration.

Currently, the investigations have not reached any conclusions. The SFDA said it is organizing experts to review foreign and domestic documents, assess the influence of soybean oil quality on cephalosporin antibiotics and study foreign methods for utilizing recycled oil.

The SFDA said the administration needs some time to invite authoritative institutions and experts to make the assessment. Once a conclusion is reached, it will inform the public.

Prosecutors said from early 2010 to July 2011, Huikang Oil sold 16,200 tons of gutter oil to Joincare, earning 145 million yuan ($22.87 million). The average price was 8,950 yuan ($1,411.67) per ton, much lower than the normal price of soybean oil, and even lower than the average price of oil sold by Huikang to food and fodder makers.

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