Police inspect illegal cooking oil, better known as 'drainage oil', seized during a crackdown in Beijing
Posted on 08/31/2010 1:15:26 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
Organic food sales have taken off in China after a series of safety scares, including the disclosure that one in 10 meals is cooked using oil dredged from the sewer.
Police inspect illegal cooking oil, better known as 'drainage oil', seized during a crackdown in Beijing
The Chinese now consume more than twice as much organic food as health-conscious Japan.
The market is worth an annual 10billion yuan (£1billion) having quadrupled in the past five years. For comparison, the British organic market is worth roughly £2billion. Interest has been promoted by a series of scares including toxic beans, contaminated milk and pork, pesticide-laced dumplings, chemically-tainted chicken, and the growing presence of what is known as “sewage oil”.
Night soil collectors typically visit the drains behind restaurants late at night to scoop up dregs of oil, which they filter and resell.
The government, which released the figures, has promised to take action against the practice. But since there are no laws against skimming oil from drains, police have had to release any suspects.
In April, a man was caught in broad daylight collecting oil at a sewer in Zhengzhou, Henan province, which he admitted intending to sell to street food vendors for 300 yuan a barrel.
“There is no way to prevent this oil from returning to the food chain,” said Zhen Zhiquan, 32, the manager of a company in Qingdao that turns sewage oil into biofuel.
“Companies like us buy around 10 to 20 per cent of the oil that is dredged from the sewers, but at least 80 per cent is recycled,” he said.
Xie Lili, 25, runs an organic store on the internet. In the aftermath of the oil scare, she said she had seen “a huge increase” in demand for organic salts,
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I am totally grossed out!
I’d love to know how they define ‘organic’. They can’t be trusted not to fertilize their produce with toilet waste!
And, remember, most of the food that Chinese restaurants serve in the U.S. is just frozen food straight from Red China.
I won't eat in a Chinese restaurant unless I know the owners very well.
A lot of Chinese take pride in their ability to gull foreigners. Every time you eat at a cheap Chinese buffet, you are eating cheaply because they are serving you literal garbage from the sewers of Red China --- and the owner is laughing at your gullibility.
Only the Chinese would think this was a good idea to start with;
And when caught, blame it on someone else; think melamine, bad milk, chemical and drug laced food products…
Mao and Lenin would be proud!
I’m reminded of the soy sauce scandal China had a few years back.
http://www.boingboing.net/2004/05/26/chinese-company-make.html
BTW, the single worst meal I’ve ever eaten (or rather, tried to eat), was on a state-run train in China back in the early 90’s. Some sort of omelet fried in *very* rancid lard, and boiling hot, sickly-sweet, soy milk. I decided to fast that day.
BTW2, the kicker was...we had one toilet for three rail cars. The plumbing on said toilet had long since rusted out and there was no means to flush said toilet. It was right next to the dining car. Did I mention the 7 hour projected transit time actually took 23 hours? And was during the middle of August?
Gotta love that communism.
Does ANYONE trust Chinese organics?
Great poster of Smokin’ Joe (What’s he smoking?) Biden!
What plumbing? I rode a train in China in the mid-80’s, and when you lifted the toilet lid, you were watching the railroad ties go by. Be careful and watch your step if you are walking across railroad tracks over there.
Heh, I’d heard about those “hole in the floor” toilets. That actually would have been preferable in this case.
The weirdest thing about the ride was all the security personnel (I guess that’s what they were) who would chase off locals trying to get on the train at some of the stops during the middle of the night.
On the plus side, a liter bottle of beer was a mere 5 Yuan. Made the time go by a little easier...even if did mean having to time your tinkle to when the train made one of those random stops. :-)
That ladle or scoop in the picture is a hardhat screwed onto a wooden rod!
During WW2 it was common practice to scrape up sewer grease and purify it. Most of it, though, was made into soap. I can see how a few enterprising Chinese could say, “let Mikey try it.” And if Mikey said yum-yum, then lets make money.
It goes way beyond Chinese restaurants.
A large percentage of our food has a Chinese connection. Either all or some of the ingredients coming from there.
We even import wheat gluten!
Next time you go to the grocery store check out the seafood, esp the shrimp.
Human feces is organic fertilizer. It’s been used for thousands of years, even here in the USA.
They are going organic? Organic?
Sheesh. If someone is immoral and criminal enough to dredge up oil out of a sewer and sell it to people to cook with, what makes them think the same people won’t simply relabel it as “organic”?
I am sure they won’t label it as “Organic Sewer Oil”.
Skepticism should be the rule in this. Even if the proper procedures for land, growing and processing are met, and in some cases this is the method, there is the problem with airborne pollution particulates still entering the growth cycle, along with contaminants in the water, plant. This is just another way that heavy metal contaminants cause a problem for "organic" plants, herbs and other items that would carry the "Certified Organic" label.
One way around this problem has been the use of hydroponic gardening. A totally controlled environment.
Ewwww. Probably should not eat at Chinese buffets anymore...
Ewwww. Probably should not eat at Chinese buffets anymore...
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