A video shot and released earlier this year by Radio Free Asia is making the rounds online today. The short documentary details the illegal production and sale of so-called "gutter oil," a cooking oil made from restaurant sewer refuse and rotten animal fat that is refined and then sold, mostly to small restaurants and street food vendors. It's part of a food safety crisis in China that The Atlantic covered last year.
While "gutter oil" is technically illegal in China, the government hasn't been able to eradicate the practice. Last year, another report came out on an oil being made from slaughter house scraps.
Radio Free Asia's footage, which features a woman nonchalantly scooping "glop" out of a manhole in broad daylight, suggests that at least in some areas, there's little risk of getting caught.
This is nasty! That sucks that there is so little regulations that you can just go out in broad daylight as scoop fluid out of the gutter to use for cooking! The government needs to step in and regulate their food making.
