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Story by Nanfang Reporter Ellen Wang
In China, it’s always buyer beware.
That couldn’t be more true in our neck of the woods, where it’s emerged that food waste – the leftover used cooking oil and other bits of garbage normally thrown away – are being fed to pigs or re-processed and sold to unsuspecting customers as cooking oil.
The article, in translation, is from the Sina Guangdong News Centre:
The Guangzhou government is currently consulting citizens on new regulations for the treatment of kitchen waste, which requires the discharge of the material to be strictly controlled. According to the new regulation, inappropriate processing of kitchen waste could result in a fine up to RMB30,000, and feeding pigs with food waste could be fined a maximum of RMB10,000.
Even though these regulations will be implemented, some restaurant bosses don’t seem too concerned. According to them, at least half of the food waste can still be sold under the table; and they aren’t bluffing. There are about 100 pig farms around Longdi Village in Zengcheng, all using used cooking oil and other food waste to feed pigs. They are also re-processing some of the oil to re-sell back to the market as cooking oil.
As disclosed by an anonymous pig farmer, to feed more than 100 pigs, he needs to purchase about 500 kilograms of kitchen waste from Dongguan and makes two round trips everyday. Out of that, about 115 kilograms of used cooking oil can be extracted in two to three days, which will then be sold back to Dongguan at RMB5 per kilogram.
As to where the used oil finally ends up, he didn’t really know.
“I don’t care as long as I got paid,” he said.
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