China sounds alarm over filthy cooking oil

[July 20, 2010]  BEIJING (AP) -- China has ordered food safety officials nationwide to step up the fight against "gutter oil" that is illegally skimmed from kitchen waste and resold, part of a government crackdown on foods tainted with potentially lethal substances.

China's Cabinet, the State Council, said the black market trade in waste oil posed "serious potential food safety risks" to the public.

The circular issued by the council Monday did not specify the health risks but the China Daily newspaper reported Tuesday that reused oil could contain dangerous substances such as aflatoxin, a mold that can cause cancer.

The State Council said the intensified crackdown should target edible oil trade fairs and wholesale markets. It called for inspections of oil being used at restaurants, school cafeterias, work canteens and kitchens at construction sites across the country.

"Recycling oil is something that has been done in all families, but the more the oil is cooked the more it will contain some residues of food and all these carcinogenic particles," said Marie-Paule Benassi, a food safety official with the European Union's delegation in China.

She said reused cooking oil would likely contain acrylamide, a chemical that forms naturally when starchy foods are baked or fried. Studies have shown the chemical, which also has industrial uses, causes cancer in lab animals and nerve damage to workers who are exposed to high levels.

"There are some food poisoning things that kill you today, and some that kill you next week and some kill you years hence," said Peter Leedham, managing director of the Suzhou office of the food testing company Eurofins Technology Service. "This is one that puts you at risk years in advance for cancers."

China consumes more food oil than it can produce and imports the difference, meaning there is little risk of Chinese recycled oil making its way overseas.

Leedham said the problem was mainly happening "at the bottom end of the market but with such frequency that it is something that's a great worry to the Chinese government at the moment."

The China Daily reported last November that authorities in Guangdong province had busted two large oil resellers. One was producing 10 tons per day and another had stored more than 32 tons of illegal oil. The official Xinhua News Agency reported earlier this month that Beijing's health inspectors had launched a weeklong crackdown on restaurants cooking with the resold fat drippings from Peking Duck.

China has been struggling to overcome a series of food safety problems, including one that started two years ago when at least six children died and nearly 300,000 children fell ill after consuming infant formula mixed with melamine, an industrial chemical used to make plastics. Melamine was also found in a slew of exported Chinese dairy products, prompting recalls in many countries.

Other persistent domestic food problems include pesticide-tainted vegetables, fish treated with cancer-causing antibiotics, eggs colored with industrial dye, and fake liquor that can cause blindness or death.

Under pressure from the public and its trade partners, China last year enacted a tough food safety law, promising harsh penalties for makers of tainted products.

[Associated Press; By ALEXA OLESEN]

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