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dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
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 Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 1:18 am Post subject: You may never eat street food in China again |
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/10/28/you-may-never-eat-street-food-in-china-again-after-watching-this-video/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost
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China's food safety problems have no better symbol than the illegal and utterly disgusting problem of gutter oil. Cooking oil is used heavily in Chinese food, so some street vendors and hole-in-the-wall restaurants buy cheap, black market oil that's been recycled from garbage. You read that correctly. Enterprising men and women will go through dumpsters, trash bins, gutters and even sewers, scooping out liquid or solid refuse that contains used oil or animal parts. Then they process that into cooking oil, which they sell at below-market rates to food vendors who use it to cook food that can make you extremely sick.
This video, produced by Radio Free Asia, shows in excruciating detail how a couple of gutter oil vendors go about their work. It starts with the couple scooping sewage out of the ground, and it ends with unwitting Chinese consumers chowing down on the end product:
To reiterate, this is illegal, something that Chinese authorities are trying to stop and not used by all street vendors. But it's also thought to be widespread. Being reprocessed garbage and sewage, gutter oil contains all sorts of untold carcinogens. Many of the operations, like the one shown in the video, are small-time. But there's enough money to be made that some producers go much bigger.
In April, Chinese authorities uncovered a gutter oil production ring that spanned 13 cities and over 100 people, who somehow acquired rotten animal parts and boiled down the fat into oil. The sting, which came after a five-month investigation, yielded 3,200 tons of the stuff; authorities estimated the black-market producers had already sold a stunning $1.6 million worth of their product.
Don't cancel any vacation plans to China over this. Food in China is delicious, and gutter oil typically is used just in some street food stalls or cheap, hole-in-the-wall dives. But it is a reminder why authorities there are deeply concerned about food safety issues.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrv78nG9R04 |
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radcon
Joined: 23 May 2011
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| Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 5:10 am Post subject: |
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| Any reason to believe that this is not happening in Korea? |
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andrewchon
Joined: 16 Nov 2008
Location: Back in Oz. Living in ISIS Aust.
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| Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 9:03 am Post subject: |
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| radcon wrote: |
| Any reason to believe that this is not happening in Korea? |
Korea imports cooking oil from China. Why aren't you dead, yet? 
Then again, so does USA and Canada. Why aren't they dead, yet? |
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rollo
Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: China
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| Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 9:05 am Post subject: |
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| Filthy! the Chinese authorities have really been clamping down on this. Most street vendors are reasonably clean. This is dying out as the inspectors are more vigilant as is the Chinese populace. |
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yodanole
Joined: 02 Mar 2003
Location: La Florida
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| Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 11:43 am Post subject: |
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Well, I was going to have some breakfast, but I've changed my mind.
I never buy bottled water ( anywhere ), because I have trust issues.
Sort of related........I've seen videos of people making fake eggs in China. Looks nasty, but I keep asking myself "How much profit can there possibly be in spending so much time and effort to make a product that isn't that expensive to begin with?" Of course, if you have no money and no job, your time isn't very valuable. |
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young_clinton
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 11:51 am Post subject: |
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| Not just the Chinese. Thai street vendors selling a healthy alternative to American "junk" food chains use the thrown out oil from McDonald's restaurants. That's been known for some time. Then they apply a double standard to their European customers. |
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young_clinton
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 11:53 am Post subject: |
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| andrewchon wrote: |
| radcon wrote: |
| Any reason to believe that this is not happening in Korea? |
Korea imports cooking oil from China. Why aren't you dead, yet?
Then again, so does USA and Canada. Why aren't they dead, yet? |
I'm sorry does anybody else on this forum think that these imports are the same thing? |
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Ginormousaurus
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
Location: 700 Ft. Pulpit
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| Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 12:40 pm Post subject: |
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| young_clinton wrote: |
| andrewchon wrote: |
| radcon wrote: |
| Any reason to believe that this is not happening in Korea? |
Korea imports cooking oil from China. Why aren't you dead, yet?
Then again, so does USA and Canada. Why aren't they dead, yet? |
I'm sorry does anybody else on this forum think that these imports are the same thing? |
I'd say it's highly unlikely that anyone is importing gutter oil. |
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radcon
Joined: 23 May 2011
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| Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 3:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Ginormousaurus wrote: |
| young_clinton wrote: |
| andrewchon wrote: |
| radcon wrote: |
| Any reason to believe that this is not happening in Korea? |
Korea imports cooking oil from China. Why aren't you dead, yet?
Then again, so does USA and Canada. Why aren't they dead, yet? |
I'm sorry does anybody else on this forum think that these imports are the same thing? |
I'd say it's highly unlikely that anyone is importing gutter oil. |
Yes, highly unlikely it's being imported. Yet what's to stop enterprising Koreans from producing their own gutter oil domestically. Good thing I don't eat street food. |
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optik404
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 3:55 pm Post subject: |
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| Love how every thread has a korea spin on it. I bet those sneaky Koreans are doing it also! Paranoid much? |
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matthagwon
Joined: 28 Sep 2013
Location: Japan lite
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| Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 6:36 pm Post subject: |
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| yodanole wrote: |
Well, I was going to have some breakfast, but I've changed my mind.
I never buy bottled water ( anywhere ), because I have trust issues.
Sort of related........I've seen videos of people making fake eggs in China. Looks nasty, but I keep asking myself "How much profit can there possibly be in spending so much time and effort to make a product that isn't that expensive to begin with?" Of course, if you have no money and no job, your time isn't very valuable. |
I've seen street venders fill empty water bottles from back alley faucets and sell the water as authentic bottled water. Also in China some noodles contain plastic. |
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andrewchon
Joined: 16 Nov 2008
Location: Back in Oz. Living in ISIS Aust.
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| Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2013 1:19 am Post subject: |
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| radcon wrote: |
| Any reason to believe that this is not happening in Korea? |
I heard Americans sent men to the Moon. Any reason to believe that this is not happening in Korea?
I heard North Koreans set off an atomic bomb. Any reason to believe that this is not happening in Korea?
I heard Boston RedSox won the World Series. Any reason to believe that this is not happening in Korea?
I heard starving people in USA are denied food stamps. Any reason to believe that this is not happening in Korea? |
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young_clinton
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2013 3:32 am Post subject: |
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| I sort of believe the stories about the "greasy spoon" restaurants reusing Kimchi off of people's plates, but using used oil from disposal bins I don't believe. Maybe because the availability is you have to go a little further to do that sort of thing. I don't think Korea is dysfunctional enough for that to be overlooked by the public. |
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radcon
Joined: 23 May 2011
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| Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2013 6:53 am Post subject: |
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| andrewchon wrote: |
| radcon wrote: |
| Any reason to believe that this is not happening in Korea? |
I heard Americans sent men to the Moon. Any reason to believe that this is not happening in Korea?
I heard North Koreans set off an atomic bomb. Any reason to believe that this is not happening in Korea?
I heard Boston RedSox won the World Series. Any reason to believe that this is not happening in Korea?
I heard starving people in USA are denied food stamps. Any reason to believe that this is not happening in Korea? |
Yes to all because: putting dirty oil into a cup is a lot easier than sending a man to the moon and we would know about it if Korea did have a space program, Boston is not a city in Korea, there are no food stamps in Korea. Are you saying that Koreans would not go to great lengths, even unscrupulous lengths, to make a buck? |
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transmogrifier
Joined: 02 Jan 2012
Location: Seoul, South Korea
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| Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2013 6:56 am Post subject: |
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| EDIT: I realized that I couldn't care less. |
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