﻿ Discarded Food Waste Slop Recycled Into Cheap Cooking Oil – chinaSMACK

Discarded Food Waste Slop Recycled Into Cheap Cooking Oil


Sewage oil“, also known as “gutter oil” or “drainage oil”, is the leftover and discarded oil collected from the drains and gutters near restaurants that has been “refined” to be reused and resold as cheap cooking oil. “Slop oil” or “swill oil” is the oil that can also be processed from thrown away food garbage that normally would be fed to pigs. Many street vendors throughout China who cook snacks (especially fried foods) may use “sewage oil” or “slop oil” to save money and keep their costs low.

From NetEase:

Why has harmful slop oil once again flooded Wuhan?

(The bold black-hearted boss even guarantees: “Slop oil is safe to eat”). In March of this year, the internet exposed the Wuhan slop oil public health safety incident (refer to relevant report: “My god! Malicious Wuhan oil factories selling slop oil guarantee safe to eat“). The problem attracted heated discussion and criticism from netizens around the country. The problem also very quickly attracted the Wuhan city government’s attention and the relevant department committed additional people and man hours, conducting a city-wide special rectification operation that lasted over a month and investigated a large amount of slop oil (refer to relevant report: “Wuhan emergency seige of slop oil scenes (follow-up report)“). Yet, right when the people feel they can relax, who would have thought that illegal refining of slop oil would stage a comeback, and flood Wuhan.

At the end of September to beginning of October, 《王浩峰聚焦》[“Wang Hao Feng Focus”] once again conducted an undercover investigation, witnessing large numbers of hideouts for the illegal refining of slop oil, with the hideouts on one street in the HongShan district being so numerous as to be innumerable; when it comes to refining slop oil, there are no procedures, and whoever offers the highest price is whoever it will be sold to.

This quickly, the problem has resurged. There are city residents who say this is not strange, is common, and is expected. With the supervision of some supervisory departments these days being “a gust of wind”, a problem is exposed, the leadership [government officials] will make some comments, there will be some on-site investigations, but they will see how the wind blows as they investigate and if no one continues asking and no one is after their positions/jobs, the investigations will stop there. Then, they will continue their own (tenured) lives of officialdom. [They will] let the same old problems wait until the next time they are exposed before saying anything. If they are not exposed, [they] won’t say anything.
















Comments from NetEase:


Fuck TMD, making money with a deadly thing.


These people should all die. The officials should also all die. Who will truly come supervise/manage this important problem of the people?


What place doesn’t have this kind of business, there are few hotels of medium-price and below that completely purchase cooking oil through proper channels!!!


May the relevant [government] departments use all their might to crack down on this black-hearted [unscrupulous] businessmen. When people have not yet died from eating this, don’t just punish them a little, because only treating it seriously when after people have died from eating this will be too late. (Recommendation: Make these black-hearted businessmen drink all of this oil themselves.)


Disgusting!!! MLGB!


Unable to extinguish, send in the chengguan


You are all overreacting…this is simply how it is in Wuhan…
When I have money, I must leave this city.


Only when life is impoverished will people become desperate!!


Ultimately this is — a problem created by the rich-poor gap.
Money has captured the majority of people’s hearts, and a minority have become too deeply poisoned; which is how this kind of reasoning has appeared: That as long a money can be made, no fear of people die; that the bold will get rich while the meek will starve to death reasoning; Then consider further: Big businesses are all doings this, so you cannot really ask why these [people] will do the same;
Quality — seems to have become a fairy tale.


Fucking what kind of people are these people? Arrest these kind of people and execute them. Making money should still involve finding a good line of work! Poor ignorant moral-less peasants. [I] strongly condemn [this/them]!!!


Let me say a something that is not impulsive: Taking these people out and shooting them would not be out of line.


Slop oil should indeed be stopped, no wonder it is easy to have reactions sometimes when eating out, probably most due to slop oil.
However, from a different side, our country should also promote not wasting food, reducing oil, and only ordering as much as appropriate. For example, the “shui zhu yu” [water boiled fish] dish, after the few pieces of fish are eaten is a dish full of oil gone to waste. I refuse to believe that the restaurant would throw away this dish of oil and immediately using it again is entirely possible; With other people eating a big table of food, most will go into the drain. [There are also people who collect oil/slop from drains.]

  • trifle

    so are you saying chinas food is not,…
    ,not…. . .,

    not clean?

    THE SHOCK!!!!!!!

    • tripe

      Cooking oil is not a food.

      • 123meeeee

        so lemme guess,

        you scrape the fat, your food was fried in, off of your food before you eat it?

        but to your point:

        i would go as far to say chinese food is not A food.

      • ChinaPrat

        No………. BUT… food is COOKED in this oil!

    • http://www.polemicpost.com chris

      Just be cautious of what you pay. If you pay 5 cents for something that normally shouldn’t be 5 cents, then somebody is cutting corners somewhere.

      • Inst

        Or when you pay $1 for something that is normally $1, someone is upping their profit margin by cutting corners.

        • maja

          most often they’ll just cut the price: the final result is not totally indistinguishable

  • Alikese

    Am I the only person who’s neither surprised nor disgusted by this? Maybe it’s from two years of living in Wuhan and eating night snacks but I would have been more surprised if they showed a street vendor pouring oil from a new bottle.

    • mechanized

      maybe not surprised but you should definitely be disgusted by whats happening. This is a foul practice, no wonder people get food poisoning all the time.

    • http://blog.sina.com.cn/lasttoblame lasttoblame

      Does that mean you’ll neither be surprised nor disgusted by the cancer you can get from eating food prepared with “pre-loved oil”?

      I’m not surprised by it either, but am terribly disgusted. It seems there is no definite line of morality to uphold when it comes to making money. Tainted milk, counterfeit baby food, all the corruption…

      We could ask why, but it’s the same reason no one queues for a line: if you are a good man who values morals and principles you will get nowhere.

      Man, Chinasmack makes me so depressed. It’s like China but without all the harmonious balance.

  • FYIADragoon

    If you live in any city that isn’t HK, or the good half of Beijing or Shanghai, this isn’t a surprise at all. The old warning over Chinese street food has always stood: “Don’t touch it.” Seriously, until the country cleans up its massive government corruption, you’re not going to see any food inspection efforts beyond the bare minimum.

    • Somethin Somethin

      Oh come on man. Anyone here from Datong to any old Difang has eaten their share of axel grease chao mien and not sure if its chicken on a stick. I aint dead. Although I did lose a digestive organ recently…trying to put 2 and 2 together.

      • FYIADragoon

        I’ve eaten it on the streets, but I also got food poisoning from it. TWICE. And thats the ones in Beijing, both times. In the nice districts too (Haidian, Wangfujing). Sanitation conditions of the food outside of Beijing just get worse. Seriously, unless you’re an English teacher, and you’re horrible with money, but for some reason still have good to excellent health insurance, you shouldn’t touch that stuff. I’ve been to Mexico and I’d say its debatable whether I would rather risk the water or the street stand food. I don’t hate China, but this is a flaw of the country.

  • http://shao.pengguo.com Peng

    Glad I never touch Wuhan.

  • http://timurileng.blogspot.com Zhang Fei

    Ever wonder how they make the Sichuan dried beef sold in 200g packets for about 20 yuan pop? I suspect in conditions similar to the above…

  • Miako Tamatsue

    These people are being very resourceful. I am sure the reuse oil is safe since it’s been heated, but I am not sure if doing it in open air and in a large stone pot like that is very sanitary.

    I hope the Chinese government can introduce cars that use cooking oil as fuel. These people would make a killing and helps the environment. It’s actually very easy to do to retrofit existing cars with a engine that burns cooking oil. Chinese people like to cook their food with oil, so I am sure there will be plenty of (cooking) oil supply. Let’s also look at other options as to how we can use these old oil to make new things (other than cook food again) like plastics.

    What do you say? Instead of wishing violent things and talking down to these people for trying to survive, let’s work with them and provide a solution that helps all?

    • Justin

      i hear the exhaust fumes smell nicer too

    • http://timurileng.blogspot.com Zhang Fei

      MT: I am sure the reuse oil is safe since it’s been heated

      I think the real problem is the accumulated carcinogens, from the oil being used for frying things until it’s the color of black coffee. It’s one thing to use it as a gasoline substitute and quite another to use it for cooking.

      • Miako Tamatsue


        You might be right about not a good idea to recycle waste cooking oil for cooking purposes. I am not an expert in waste cooking oil. Maybe there is a way. If they can convert human urine to safe drinking water, I am sure there’s a way to recycle waste cokign oil for cooking purpose and still be cost-effective for the common people.

        • http://timurileng.blogspot.com Zhang Fei

          MT: If they can convert human urine to safe drinking water

          Urine isn’t carcinogenic, and boiling kills the germs. In a fix, special forces troopers are instructed to collect and drink their own urine. Oil heated to high temperatures undergoes a chemical change that makes it carcinogenic whereas urine is merely water with a few additional impurities.

          • Gourmet Chef

            Reusing cooking oil for cooking has been done for hundreds of years. You can reuse it safely too. Look it up.

          • http://timurileng.blogspot.com Zhang Fei


            Hundreds? I’m thinking for as long as man has cooked with lard. Probably thousands of years. Carcinogens don’t kill you immediately. In fact, if you have good genes, you can probably consume this oil your entire life without getting cancer. Or smoke five packs of cigarettes a day. The problem is that the only way to know for sure whether you have good genes is at the end of a cancer-free life. Otherwise, at best, you’re looking at a very expensive series of operations. (At worst, you find out what people mean by living fast and dying young).

    • dace

      I was looking into making biodiesel from used oil (liek a bunch of friends do back home), but was unable to find any businesses who would give me their oil, as they all sell it now to the same people who collect the food slops for the pigs. Staff in McDonalds and KFC even refuse to say where their oil goes, so who knows what happens to theirs?

  • Miako Tamatsue

    And you what else? With the Internet (that was invented by the American military) these days, there are vasts resources of information that you can find online. I am sure these people are too poor and don’t have access, but maybe a local university student or some professional can search the Internet and help show these people how to reuse these oil other than reselling it as cooking oil.

    Here, this site talks how old cooking oil can be used to make soap and biodiesal:


    And this site talks about using old cooking oil for heating fuel and power generation (fuel to generate electricity). The wastes that come from the fuel conversation are used as very rich fertilizer for farming.

    Actually, if you Google “waste cooking oil”, you’re see there are companies that actually will buy old cooking oil. Maybe someone in Wuhan or even the government can provide a collection center and collect these used cooking oil and sell it to places like Europe or North America that actually need the old cooking oil (for applications mentioned above).

    Maybe instead of spending so much time on the Internet bashing these Wuhan people, maybe someone is smart enough and responsible enough to gather the information and help these people to do the right (and profitable) thing.

    • Miako Tamatsue

      As I was typing up this the previous post and thinking more about it, I am coming to realization that waste cooking oil can help fuel China’s economy. Seriously.

      The competition for underground oil nowadays is so tight because every country out there is trying to secure their source for oil (from the ground) to fuel their own economy. China (like other countries including the U.S. and Russia) is willing to overlook humanity issues like genocide and inhumane social and working conditions to setup their oil exploration and development companies in Africa, Middle East, South America, Asia, etc. But all China have to do is look at home for an alternative fuel option that is cheaper, helps its environment (and eventually the global environment), and helps its people.

      That alternative fuel is waste cooking oil. And it’s sustainable. The cooking oil comes from vegetables which can be regrown. And the wastes from converting waste cooking oil to fuel can be used as fertilizer to grow more vegetables. The converted fuel is used to power cars and power stations to generate electricity for homes and businesses.

      The waste cooking oil can also be exported to countries like Japan which do not used that much oil in its cooking and may want to use waste cooking oil as fuel also. If there are excess converted fuel, that too can be exported.

      I have not look into the numbers yet, but I speculate that the cost to convert waste cooking oil to fuel is less expensive than the cost to explore, drill, and convert raw oil from the ground into kerosene, gasoline, etc.

      Just imagine in addition to wide use of waste cooking oil, you can also add solar, wind, and hydro-energy. This combination will definitely make China self-sufficient to grow its economy and save its environment (which is in a mess right now).

      • http://cnreviews.com Kai


        Your heart’s in the right place but, respectfully, you’re overlooking a few critical details.

        First of all, the wastes they’re processing here aren’t typical of the waste oil you’re thinking of that a very small amount of people use in places like the states to run their converted cars. These people are collecting scraps and garbage, not vats of discarded deep-fryer oil. There’s an overwhelming difference in purity and quantity presenting a much larger hurdle to easily repurposing this waste into “biofuel” for cars.

        Second, the costs for converting existing machinery (such as cars) to run on discarded cooking oil are not exactly cheap. Moreover, it isn’t just a street price issue, it’s an issue of infrastructure and energy efficiency as well. Few people are wealthy enough to convert their cars AND be interested in venturing to these dumps to “refuel”, even provided that these dumps can adequately process what is essentially rotting pig slop into pure enough oil to operate in converted vegetable oil engines.

        As much as we may dislike it, fossil fuels are still an incredibly cheap source of energy, albeit a limited and likely rapidly diminishing supply. Fossil fuels “fuel” so much of our world that even the production of cooking oils “from vegetables” involves an expense of fossil fuels. Reusing used cooking oil that would’ve been discarded is not a true alternative or substitute energy source to fossil fuels, but rather merely recycling and extracting additional efficiency from fossil fuels. The reasoning behind this is related to the arguments against ethanol fuel as a viable alternative fuel.

        Finally, going back to your first comment, the heated used cooking oil isn’t safe, much less hygenic. Check out the links provided in the original post. One of the articles explains why health risks and hazards.

        • Miako Tamatsue


          I have an engineering and an MBA background. I do understand that the human intellect can solve any problems, but the bottom line to make it happen is really the cost.

          I will let the Chinese people and the Chinese government determine when their diminishing marginal return will be before its cost effective for them to make the change. But I do know for sure that the Europeans, Americans, and the Japanese are beginning to realize that oil will no longer be cost effective comparing to alternative fuel and energy. They are also beginning to see that going the alterantive fuel and energy route actually can in itself drive the economy by making jobs and whole new profitable industries. Rechargeable batteries for electric and hybrid cars and solar panels for homes and buildigns are driving the economy of Detroit right now.

          Implementing new technologies will always be expensive. In this case, providing biofuel cars to use waste cooking oil in China will be expensive. But that’s usually where the government comes in to help. The government helps to a point where mass use and mass production will make the technology cost effective. This has happen with the history of planes, trains, and automobiles.

          With regard to people collecting scraps and garbage and not vats of discarded deep-fryer oil, regardless what the wastes is, my point is that those people can be taught to recycle those things in more effective ways that is environmentally friend and still be profitable. If you provide these people with a better way to recycle those wastes, they are more likely to do it and not resale those waste cooking oil back into the market as cooking oil which as you have pointed out that is not safe for human consumption.

          • SAM

            I propose that the local government of Wuhan start by converting their fleet of cars to use biofuel. This is not as complicated and expensive as people think. Any diesal engine can use cooking oil as fuel. You need to filter and have some kind of heat exchanger to increase the temperature of the oil before it’s injected into the diesal engine. The local government can buy the cooking oil from the local vendors and restaurants. Businesses with a large fleet of cars/trucks will be next. This is what’s happening with the introduction of natural gas and hydrogen fuel for cars and mass transit in Europe. Yes, it starts with the help of the government with subsidies before it becomes profitable when more people use it.

          • http://cnreviews.com Kai


            1. My response to your comment has nothing to do with your Engineering or MBA background so let’s not make that an issue.

            2. My response is not denying the Chinese people and government to determine what they will do and when they will do it.

            3. My response does not disagree with the notion that Europeans, Americans, and the Japanese realize that oil is a finite resource. I think I made myself very clear that I agree it is a finite resource and our current consumption is unsustainable.

            4. MY response does not contradict any notion that alternative fuel and energy can be economically profitable industries.

            5. I can easily point to how green technology is a driving force in the mainland Chinese economy as well, much less Detroit, given that BYD is actively developing (with Warren Buffet’s money) battery and electric vehicle technology and Americans are pissed about Chinese solar panels undercutting them.

            6. My response does not suggest I don’t know that implementing technology is expensive. In fact, that was an important part of my caveat against your earlier enthusiasm. As I said, your heart is in the right place, but my response was to caution against getting too excited about your ideas because there are huge and very obstacles to overcome. This doesn’t mean I’m against them, it just means it’s one thing to suggest something and another to balance it with considerations of its real-world (in China) viability and applications. Yes, the government can help, I am not disputing that but “help from the government” alone is not a cure-all answer for the obstacles I mentioned. Moreover, you’re not really suggesting how the government should help other than it should.

            7. I said nothing about or against people being able to learn how to recycle wastes in an environmentally safe and profitable way. I said plenty about how your repeated references to cars running on vegetable oil is sufficiently irrelevant to the “slop oil” that is the primary subject of this post. Is it not logical to say “wait a second, the suggestion you’re making isn’t applicable because the main ‘product’ being produced here isn’t the same as what is required by your suggestion”? Did I say anything to suggest I’m against environmentally sound and profitable recycling industries?

            8. I have no disagreement with improving recycling methods to produce better recycled products that are used in less dangerous applications. The point of my response was just to say your suggestions for improvement aren’t exactly applicable to this situation. The inputs and outputs are different and the promises of economic viability you are sugggesting are dependent upon so many other variables and infrastructure that currently aren’t in place in China. In fact, they’re not even really in place in America, Europe, or Japan either. I’m on a popular automotive forum and the people who run converted vegetable oil engines are extremely few and far in between because the conversion is not cheap and procurring the oil isn’t exactly easy either. This is true amongst treehugger communities as well.

            Aspiring for expansion of better recycling practices and industries is GOOD (heart in the right place). I’m just saying it isn’t nearly as easy and obvious as you’re making it sound. I’m not criticizing your goals, I’m just tempering the enthusiasm you might generate here.

            To their credit, these people have already found a profitable industry that delivers economic value to themselves and others. They boil the refuse, bringing the oil to the top, ladel it off and strain it to resell, while feeding the rest to pigs or using it as fertilizer. It’s just that it’s also an industry that is grossly harmful to public health, in contravention of laws, regulations, and ethics. They may not care, the restaurants may not, and the pigs may not. But those of us who might end up eating something cooked in that disgusting slurry do.

            This industry exists because there’s demand for cheaper cooking oil. A more relevant suggestion would be how these people could recycle better to produce that cheaper cooking oil, not a suggestion for how they could take inputs they don’t have (waste oil that can be used as an alternative for fossil fuels) to create outputs (alternatives for fossil fuels) that no one in China is really in demand of because either they don’t have the equipment to run utilize those alternatives or there’s insufficient infrastructure to make those alternatives economically viable in China.

          • http://cnreviews.com Kai


            Your proposal is the same as Miako’s examples. The problem this post brings to light will not be solved by your proposal because the inputs and desired outputs are different. How simple it is to convert diesel engines to use cooking oil as fuel is largely irrelevant.

            In order to create the demand you need for your proposal, you’re asking the government to take the initiative to convert their vehicles to run on discarded cooking oil. There might be enough McDonalds’ and KFCs in Wuhan to provide this oil, but these peasants in this post are not collecting deep-fryer oil, they’re collecting general food waste. They’re doing this not to create cooking oil to power cars, but to create cheaper cooking oil for street vendors and shady restaurants. The economics and motivations are substantially different.

            A proposal closer to solving the above problem is to teach these peasants how to better recycle the trash they’re collecting into cleaner, safer reusable cooking oil they can sell without increasing their costs. A suggestion that they change what they’re collecting to produce something they’re not selling (and no one is demanding) won’t do squat for solving this disgusting problem.

            You have to ask yourself if your proposal will actually solve the problem described in this post. Or is it something that may be a cool eco-trend but is otherwise irrelevant?

          • SAM


            You write a lot, but in the end, I am not sure what you really agree or disagree on or responding to for that matter.

            To change the subject a little, I am just glad that I live in Europe and we have choices where our food comes from. We have avoided and continue to avoid food made from China for the fact that it’s unsafe.

      • HK

        Mate, let these Chinese live in their own makings.

  • Tommy

    Anyone who has eaten a hot dog is not allowed to post here, [including me]

    As long as you label it who cares where it comes from?

    I like Alikese’s comment, I would have been more shocked if they were using fresh oil. ROFL

  • Miako Tamatsue
  • Abbie

    Like Wu han is the only place they do this? why is any chinese person surprised by this? if they didnt i would be surprised.

  • Chen

    The problem is I am not surpised. Most people aren’t surprised. Why? Must got to be the history of Chinese people doing things………… like the milk issue…

    • Alan

      Is this China, or some poor banana republic in Africa?

      • Jeremiah

        What’s the difference?

      • http://timurileng.blogspot.com Zhang Fei

        A: Is this China, or some poor banana republic in Africa?

        China’s got a large GDP not because the average Chinese is rich – it’s because China has a population of 1.3b people. Huge numbers of Chinese farmers survive on about $3 a day, not exactly surprising when many “farms” are merely lots of 2 or 3 acres.

  • http://blog.sina.com.cn/lasttoblame lasttoblame

    Yes, no one is surprised, so go back to eating your soylent green quietly.

  • lostinsz

    Old factoid. I cook at home or go to a Sichuan resturaunt where the chilly kills anything.

    • Rick in China

      Including your chances at a solid defecation.

      • lostinsz

        Rick. Steer clear of so-called Seafood Resturaunts. What a misnomer. Aquaculture from south Fujian. The fish are fed growth hormones, sort of like the stuff Arnie consumes/steroids. The fish flesh is a grey colour, so they are then fed antibiotics just before harvesting to kill the bacteria and turn the flesh white. If you are not careful, you will grow a third eye. Pork. Similar process. No wonder you lose it sometimes, and whack the wife because the chopsticks were facing the wrong way. Dont worry. You are victim.

        • Rick in China

          I was referring to the chillies in sichuan food killing “everything” resulting in diarrhea..but you’re right about the fish.

          I’ve lived in Chengdu for ~ 6yrs, we’re very landlocked – the fish are also farmed/grown in tanks in similar fashion. The problem is they often fish farm in muddy rivers, and you can taste the ‘muddy fish’ at most lower class restaurants. I do eat some fish, but only certain types and only when I trust where it’s from.

          If you’re in Shenzhen you have probably been to Prince’s Kitchen – we have one here also – I find their quality of fish is quite good, at least if you go Japanese, I’m convinced it’s not local farm fish and quite enjoy it.

          • lostinsz

            Thanks Rick. have to admit liking spicy tofu but a big Sichuan pigout does sort of move the bowels. Might not be a bad thing at my age, since my prostate results two days ago were to be envied. Things would be good if China turned out a decent yoghurt minus all that sugar. The chicken is rs while it is really good in Korea, but their rice is short grain and shithouse. Yours in culinary heaven. Oh yes, bread also has too much sugar,and I have sworn off pork forever.

          • http://timurileng.blogspot.com Zhang Fei

            The problem is they often fish farm in muddy rivers

            I’ve had fish at seafood restaurants suspended over the pond where the fish are raised. The amusing thing is that an outhouse is suspended over the pond so that solid waste can supplement the normal complement of fish food. Now that’s what I call an efficient food chain. Obviously, if you’re not Chinese, this type of fine dining is only for the strong of stomach.

          • Alan

            RIC, I agree on the chillies, Sichuan food is so peppery and spiced up that it just blasts the shit out of everything in the wok.

            Big props on princes kitchen also:)


  • lostinsz

    There is food adulteration in China1 This is like saying the sun comes up in the morning.

    • fewafwefwafewa

      off yourself dolt

  • fireworks

    When are people going to learn to stop cutting corners and substituting ingredients or materials. Its just a health hazard. Who knows what else some guy with infinite wisedom would substitute next… if you find your alcohol drinks taste like rocket fuel, it probably is. ROFL.

    • http://cnreviews.com Kai

      LoL, except rocket fuel is infinitely more expensive than actual alcohol.

  • dave

    These people are horribly industrious that’s for sure.

    I am sure if there were customers and a buck could be made they would be digging turds out of squat pots.

  • ImmortalTechnique

    Is it just me or does that vat just look like the local version of 麻婆豆腐 （mapodoufu)?

    • 123meeeee

      i could sooooo go for some 4 yuan mapodofu right now :O

  • Susan

    What is wrong with you Chinese people? Contaminated Food. Cheap and unsafe products like lead contaminated toys. Loud mouth. Nasty behaviour like digging their nose, spitting, urinating, etc. in public. Throwing trash everywhere.

    No matter where you go in this world, you see the same shitty behaviour let it be in China or Chinatown in Australia, US, Canada, or Peru.

  • paparoti

    i like chinese food in china…
    when i bite it it’s like sponge it goes brosppppp brosspppp and huge amount of oil make ur hand wet…
    it’s like having a free soup make of oil…
    oil make me healthy!!!
    go go go green

    • 蛋蛋

      Dude, I’m trying to imagine the noise “brosppppp brosspppp” but I can’t. Please post a link to an audio file.
      Also, it aint green, it be brown GO GO GO BROWN

  • w/ZGcharacteristics

    I wish Chinese people were this resourceful when it came to developing new technologies here in China. Is this stuff as bad as the oil and condiments packets that come with most asian instant noodles?

  • George

    I arrived a month and few weeks ago in Wuhan. Is this a welcoming party?

    I wanted to try some Chinese street food and now this? Just wanna puke now….

    Fucken disgusting!!!!

    • John

      HAHA sucked in bitch!



    ——–>>> DIRTY RATS is what it has to do with

    South American Poor People would never do something like this,
    Thai Poor People would Never DO something Like This,


    There’s no way this country is leading anything except a fucked up world.. FUCK ME

    • John

      this has nothin to do with dirty rats. that’s what india worships. rats..for fucksacks why couldn’t u go for a normal turtle or dog? rats! c’mon! is that the only thing u guys won’t eat?
      so what’s this topic bout again? oh yeah..dirty rats..dirty lil fuckers

  • Don

    I’m tired of some folks on Chinasmack. Because someone from somewhere posted some picture and we started cursing the whole China. What if those on that pictures are just labourers or just ordinary people doing some cleaning.
    I’m not a Chinese but I hate it when someone or some people think their country is heaven. Every country has its own bad side. Don’t believe in whatever you read online. Some stupid folks will do anything to damage the image of oneself.

    • chabuduoxiansheng

      you’re ghey. “I hate it when someone or some people thing their country is heaven” whahwhahhh The fact remains that some countries are way the fuck better than other countries. Stop sitting on the fence your whole life, shitbird.


    Now people realize why in China they have the habit to drink boiled water…it is not part of the local culture, just a way to defend yourself against the effects of China dirty supply chain

    • capt. nullz whatever

      Not to hate on anyone here today.

      But the only countries without this drinking boiled water thing is in industrialized nations.

      Anyway…is this surprising to you in China? Eating out is nasty period. I still do it…you know when you visit a place as a regular you sort of put those weird thoughts in the back of your mind.

  • anotherteacher

    Oh, Wuhan. I love you, but whenever you’re making headlines, it’s for something bad.

  • Michael

    ROFL! she used a shovel! i wanna go to the shop that uses this oil & i want eat with a fuken shovel too!
    this deserves a MICHAEL’S GOLD STAR for new innovative ideas for cooking shit with a shovel

    • 蛋蛋

      Hey Michael, do pitchforks count? I once used a pitchfork to remove a chicken from a barbecue after it had caught on fire, the fucken chicken I mean, not the barbecue, can I have a gold star and also should I pluck the chicken next time?

  • Righteous American

    Trying to get the vomit out from between the keys on my keyboard. I have tears in my eyes. Chances are if you’ve been in China for some time, you have eaten this mess. What horror!

  • Potomacker

    For the life of me, I cannot understand the economics of this kind of operation. The food waste business is viable because it is used to feed pigs and other farm animals. In fact, the more oil in the food waste, the more valuable it is to the pigfarmer. It’s just so hard to consider that with all the additional energy, labor, and time, a greater profit can be made than from simply selling the mass of food waste as animal feed.
    Then again, there might not be a valid economic benefit to this kind of operation. There simply might be an excess of labor wanting to keep busy doibg anything, ethical, profitable, or otherwise.

  • Anon

    I’m never eating Chinese food ever again !!!
    … Well.., at least in China anyway!!!

    • Righteous American

      not possible. you will eat it, and it will be pig swill that you eat.

  • 5318008

    Come on everybody. If this story is true, these people don’t do this because they want to. They are trying to make some sort of living. No one would do this kind of work if they had a better choice.

    • Matt

      What? There is literally no other industry or work in Wuhan? If these people didnt go out and procure these tools and then go out and search for scrap food because they wanted to then why did they?

  • http://www.southeast.devhub.com sam

    yummy mummy

  • Mike Fish

    They not always true… you get what you pay for.

  • Peye

    An here they told me the free enterprise system is self-regulating. Bon appetite.

  • jacare

    There is no reason to be agitated…the pictures doesn’t prove them being sold as cooking oil…

    it’s probably just being sold to soap or lubrication (for condoms) manufacturers..

  • Shitheel

    What a bunch of fucking whinny pussies all of you are. Just eat the fucking food, and be happy with the fact that it runs straight through you, then be happy with the fact that you’re strengthening your immune system, so when you go back to whatever shithole you came from, you’re not like the weak vermin there, getting stomach aches because the plate the food was served on wasn’t sterilized, sanitized and rinsed according to bullshit government procedure.

    Either you’re the type who sees a hair in your food and takes it out yourself and continues eating or you send it back. And if you’re eating street food in the first place your not exactly a vegan or Dr.Healthy diet to begin with, so I don’t see what you really care.

    As for the people doing this, at least they use a very complex filtration system and weren’t scooping it out with their bare hands…..

    • dumprings

      first off, olive oil is a healthy oil, if only people get more education about this

      second, scooping it out with their bare hands won’t do, it’s next to no common sense, it’s liquid, how do you scoop liquid with bare hands? the complex filtration you described versus the pictures are enticingly believable. if you can drink 1 gallon of it straight without choking or spilling, I will pay you 1 year’s salary of an average worker in wuhan, tax free. no medical insurance though.

  • http://n/a Wesley Shangahi

    This cooking oil will not kill you directly.
    I will just increase your chances to get CANCER.
    Old or used oils are top quality cancer triggers.

  • Pingback: Jonathan In China » Blog Archive » Food and the Environment in China()

  • Pingback: Recycled Cheap Cooking Oil from Discarded Food Waste in China | Wayang Times ~ Funny and Entertaining Asian Picture-Video Collection()

  • Irrawaddy

    As for using waste cooking oil for biodiesel: We have a company in my hometown in the states that does this.

    The problem is that they have to have 2-3 people working full time on collecting the waste oil, and signing restaurants to long-term contracts. The fact is that they have to compete with other companies in other industries for the supply. The going rate in the states for waste oil keeps the biodiesel company’s costs at under $2.00 a gallon for finished product.

    Learning about their business model, I bounced it off several knowledgeable Chinese. The upshot is that the going rate for waste oil in China is higher than in the states, with the result that the selling price for biodiesel would have to be quite a bit higher than petroleum-derived diesel.

  • sunyata

    holy friggin shit!!

    enjoy your 麻辣燙 peeps“

  • http://www.veggieoilcar.com.ph Chips Guevara

    Dear Netease,

    Could I have permission in posting the link to these pictures on my website? I have an SVO conversion business that allows diesel engines to run on used cooking oil. I am hoping to convince people to stop selling their used cooking oil to just anybody so that we can use the oil for fuel purposes and saving the environment instead.
    Chips Guevara

    • http://netease.com? Netaese

      Dear Chips,



      PS Very clever finding me here, rather than at my own website
      PPS Your name is awesome

  • ozjenva

    Proof yet again, that Chinese will eat anything.

  • Pingback: Cuidado ao comer frituras na China | Planeta Esquisito()

  • Pingback: 中國人年吃 300萬噸坑渠油 毒性是砒霜 100倍 Discarded Food Waste Slop Recycled Into Cheap Cooking Oil()

  • philip

    welcome to Wuhan!


    Thats not oil making process. The product in the pot is fruit based. They are making a syrup. Not sure what for

    • 蛋蛋

      Why I do believe it’s a cumquat marmalade TO PUT ON TOAST

    • dumprings

      even for syrup made this way is disgusting don’t you think?

  • zun

    this is pretty normal in nanjing

  • Pingback: Dumplings, with a Side of Sewer Swill | China()

  • Chris

    Just saw a collector in Hangzhou, around 3 a.m. Told him it kills people what he’s doing, hope he thinks about it. But a few Kuai is likely more important than the lifes of some people that do not (most likely) belong to his family anyways. 5000 years tradition, yeah!

    • Tarquin F Smythe QJM

      Collecting used vegetable oil is a common practice and the end product is bio fuel for vehicles. I despair at the stupidity of people drawn into this discussion who believe the sludge is anything other than fuel…and the pictures are out of context, they do not relate to the story.

  • Pingback: Volvo, Restaurants, Mistresses, Math, CCTV, & Sister Zhu – chinaSMACK()
