TWO-THIRDS of the city s restaurants and as many as three-quarters of canteens use dangerous swill oil recycled from kitchen waste, a report has found.
Most of the 420,000 tons of edible oil used annually in Shenzhen was swill oil, yesterday s Shenzhen Economic Daily reported, citing an investigation conducted by the city s political advisory body.
The director of the Nutrition Department at Shenzhen No. 2 People s Hospital, Zhang Maoxiang, said swill oil often contained aflatoxin, one of the most carcinogenic substances known to science. It was 100 times more poisonous than white arsenic.
More importantly, it cannot be destroyed by high temperatures as bacteria can, Zhang said.
Unlike certified packaged fresh oil, most edible oil sold on the market is produced by unlicensed food processing factories which collect waste oil from city restaurants. It is recycled and sold in bulk.
According to the investigation report, Shenzhen has around 68,000 restaurants, but only 35 percent use packaged oil. Only 25 to 30 percent of 10,000 canteens at the city s factories and businesses served the millions of employees food cooked with fresh oil.
Some 40 percent of the canteens in the city s 440 schools used swill oil, according to the report.
As swill oil can be extremely hazardous to health, it was the government s duty to prevent kitchens from using swill oil for cooking, the report said.
About 150 tons of swill oil came from the city s catering venues every day. Most oil is collected by licensed companies and turned into biodiesel or commercial grease, the city s environment commission said.
However, the commission said it could not calculate how much was sold to make swill oil.
The department said the city would focus on improving the situation by building four food waste processing facilities.
(Wang Yuanyuan)
Action taken to ban toxic oil
MANAGERS of catering venues that process or use swill oil could be jailed, according to regulations governing oil and food waste management announced Monday.
A series of strict regular checks would be conducted at city restaurants, canteens and stores, the city s food safety authority said. All catering venues would have to provide purchase certificates during the inspections to ensure all oil was bought through legal channels, authorities said.
Under the new regulations, swill oil will be banned from animal feed.
Food waste should be collected by licensed recycling companies. According to the regulations, those found selling waste to unlicensed companies running processing factories and swill oil retailers could face jail terms or other punishment.
(Wang Yuanyuan)
