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Gutter oil ()() is a term used in China, both Mainland and Taiwan, to describe illicit cooking oil which has been recycled from waste oil collected from sources such as restaurant fryers, sewer drains, grease traps and slaughterhouse waste. The issue is frequently found in People's Republic of China; however, the issue is not limited to China, Southeast Asia is also a problematic area in this regard. Reprocessing is often very rudimentary; techniques include filtration, boiling, refining and the removal of adulterants.〔Qian Ye, Xiaofang Pei (Methods for differentiating recycled cooking oil needed in China ) AOCS〕 It is then packaged and resold as a cheaper alternative to normal cooking oil. Another version of gutter oil uses discarded animal parts, animal fat and skins, internal organs, and expired or otherwise low-quality meat which is then cooked in large vats in order to extract the oil. Used kitchen oil can be purchased for between 859 and 937 dollars per ton while the cleaned and refined product can sell for 1,560 per ton.〔Li Li (In the Tank, Not on the Table ) The Beijing Review 17 November 2011〕 Thus there is great economic incentive to produce and sell gutter oil. It is estimated that up to one in every ten lower market restaurant meals consumed in China is prepared with gutter oil. This high prevalence is due to what Feng Ping of the China Meat Research Center has made clear: "The illegal oil shows no difference in appearance and indicators after refining and purification because the law breakers are skillful at coping with the established standards."〔Andrew Shen ("China's Ministry of Health Just Inadvertently Green Lighted The Gutter Oil Industry" ). ''Business Insider'' 18 October 2011〕 The first documented case of gutter oil in mainland China was reported in 2000, when a street vendor was found to be selling oil obtained from restaurant garbage disposals.〔He Jiangyong and Liu Ziqian, ("Sick Slick" ), ''NewsChina Magazine'', December 2011.〕 The first documented case of gutter oil in Taiwan was reported in 1985. In subsequent investigation, 22 people were arrested for involvement in a recycling oil ring over 10 years based in Taipei. The worst offender was sentenced to 7 years in prison.〔(), UDN, September 2014.〕 Additionally, some reported an earlier incident in Taiwan in the 1960s, where "Trench Oil" was imported from Japan to Taiwan and then used in food processing.〔("Japanese Tactics To Solve The Trench Oil" ), ''Waste Management World'', December 2010.〕 In September 2012, an ongoing investigation into the suspected use of gutter oil as a raw material in the Chinese pharmaceutical industry was revealed. A massive scandal involving 240 tons of gutter oil in Taiwan affecting hundreds of companies and thousands of eateries broke in September 2014, some of which may have been exported overseas.〔("Taiwan's Premier Bans Sale 235 Food Companies Products Gutter Oil Scandal" ). ''South China Morning Post''〕 ==Production and distribution== The collected waste oil is sold to local workshops or small factories for cleaning and packaging. When sold to workshops it is often transported on the back of bicycles by peddlers who are paid a monthly wage; afterwards, the oil is held in 55-gallon barrels at the workshops until it is processed.〔Alexa Olesen ("Gutter Oil: China Sounds Alarm Over Filthy Cooking Oil" ). ''Huffington Post'', 20 July 2010〕 On other occasions the oil goes to industrial cooking oil refineries for further processing before it finally reaches its end purpose. The industrial oil refineries are usually legitimate producers that sell the processed oil for use in the chemical or energy industries. Gutter oil is perfectly suitable as a raw ingredient for producing soap, rubber, bio-fuel and cosmetics.〔 However, the refiners can also have other intentions as the prices attained by selling it as cooking oil are much higher than if it is sold to the chemical or energy industries. There are no proper rules nor protocols in place to prevent purchases from or sales to entities intending to use the oil for human consumption. So it is very common for individuals or wholesalers to purchase oil from these industrial refineries and then resell the oil to restaurants or to end consumers. There have even been some cases where the industrial oil refiner will package the oil under a unique brand name and sell it as legitimate oil in retail outlets as opposed to just selling directly to restaurants. Some lower market restaurants have long-term purchase agreements with oil recyclers for selling their used oil.〔David Barboza (Recycled Cooking Oil Found to Be Latest Hazard in China ) ''The New York Times'', 31 March 2010〕〔Cao Yin and Luo Wangshu, ("Rotting meat used to make illegal oil" ), ''China Daily'', 4 April 2012.〕 Lower market restaurants and street vendors are the biggest end buyers of gutter oil as they operate with lower profit margins than bigger restaurants. Moreover, it is also one of the largest kitchen expenses for restaurants, so obtaining cheaper oil can allow an offending restaurant to reduce its overall expenses. Chinese food is generally heavily dependent on oil due to most foods being fried so cheaper meal prices for the many cost conscious consumers are possible if gutter oil is used instead of virgin oil.〔Xinhua News Agency, (Our kitchens must be freed from gutter oil ), 14 September 2011.〕 The situation becomes more serious due to the fact that it is hard to distinguish reprocessed gutter oil from legitimate oil. Bleach is used to transform gutter oil's dark color into a more natural one and alkali additives are used to neutralize the abnormal pH caused by containing high concentrations of animal fats.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gutter oil」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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