China has created a new process to detect dangerous "gutter oil" in retail shops and restaurant food, the government will use it as bus fuel to keep it out of the kitchen.
Gutter oil is " inferior quality oil, like hogwash oil, waste fried oil, food offal and waste grease from related enterprises," and even sewage according to foodsafety.gov.
The most common complications of the illegal oil are " diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and related gastrointestinal sickness." Since sewage and heavy metals are often brought into the mix further health problems can arise such as acute abdominal cramps, anemia and toxic hepatic disease.
The substance can even contain cancer-causing chemicals such as aflatoxin and benzopyrene. In 2011, when gutter oil was at its height, one in every 10 restaurant were using the illegal cooking base, according to Time World.
The government cracked down on the practice and arrested over 2,000 people, but plenty of gutter oil is still slipping through the cracks. Food safety expert He Dongping told China Youth Daily in 2011 that it could be 10 years before the problem is completely taken care of.
A Chinese University has come up with a system in hopes of wiping out the disgusting food service practice, according to a Science China Press release. The researchers have developed a "rapid colorimetric detection of illegal cooking oils based on phase transfer technology."
The system could allow food safety employees to test cooking oil quickly and on the spot. In the past, the Chinese government had monitored the situation through purchasing records and administrative licensing.
The tests allowed illegal cooking oil to be detected by the naked eye. In a blind test the accuracy rate was 95.7 percent. The test was even able to single out 2.8 percent gutter oil mixed in with an approved cooking oil.
According to China.org.cn gutter oil can sometimes be identified without any testing, the substance " usually is less transparent, and has an abnormal color and bad smell."
The oil can be processed into biodiesel, and could be used to fuel vehicles. Shanghai plans on using the substance to fuel public buses within two years in an attempt to keep it out of kitchens, reported China Daily.
"On the one hand, we emphasized cleaning up illegal oil collectors,"said Lou Diming, a professor at Tongji's School of Automotive Studies who led the study on turning the noxious oil into a useful fuel. "On the other, we looked for ideal ways to use the recycled oil. Using it as auto fuel is one of them,"
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