One in Ten Meals in China Cooked in Gutter Oil
By wchung | 02 May, 2025

Two to three million of the 22.5 million tons of cooking oil consumed in China each year may be gutter oil.

Illegal operations in China recycle two to three million tons of cooking oil each year while the nation consumes 22.5 million tons, according to a recent report from Wuhan Polytechnic University.

“That means about one-tenth of the cooking oil in China is refined from discarded kitchen waste,” He Dongping, a food science expert at the University, told People’s Daily.

Much of the recycled oil comes from discarded cooking oil used by restaurants which contains aflatoxin, a highly carcinogenic substance, according to recent reports by various investigative journalists. Restaurants and caterers can earn tens thousands of yuan each year by supplying used cooking oil to illegal recylers.

The practice arose due to loopholes in existing regulations in which the government can only tax producers, leaving illegal recyclers outside regulatory control. Changing the way discarded cooking oil is defined — either as a resource or a waste product — would allow agencies to take more active measures to prevent illegal recycling for use as cooking oil.

Earlier this month Guangzhou city introduced rules for managing kitchen waste and discarding cooking oil to impose fines of between 2,000 yuan and 50,000 yuan ($310-US$7,830) to restaurants and food manufacturers who recycle discarded oil or use it to produce and sell processed food valued at less than 10,000 yuan ($1,600). Fines can be 5 to 10 times the price of the goods sold for over 10,000 yuan, in addition to revoking licenses.

One caterer commented that the fine was too low in response to the city’s calls for comment.

A recent nationwide police sweep prompted by news reports resulted in the arrest of 32 and the seizure of 100,000 tons of gutter oil.