The Making Of 'Gutter Oil'

Radio Free Asia0 HN recommenders · 2018–2025
7.3M views · documentary · evergreen · Uploaded 2013-05-02

A Radio Free Asia report from its China food safety series on how "gutter oil" is recovered from sewers and waste and sold on to cheap restaurants and street vendors.

Cited as a documentary look at gutter oil and as an example of restaurant cost-cutting and food safety problems.

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4 comments from Hacker News

@keketi2018 · in “In China, Desperate Patients Smuggle Drugs or Make Their Own”

When I saw a video[1] about Chinese gutter oil, I didn't believe something as repulsive could exist. I was wrong. [1] [VIDEO]

@beardog2019 · in “In Beijing, it’s often cheaper to have food delivered than to get it yourself”

Such as using Gutter Oil (not limited to delivery), a practice where cooking oil is retrieved/derived from random unsafe sources such as sewers, a practice thought to be common in parts of China: [LINK] [VIDEO]

@cma2020 · in “Why Restaurants Are So Fucked”

This video is funded by he American government so I'm not sure how biased it is, but it shows a cost cutting measure (gutter oil): [VIDEO]

@joecool10292025 · in “Multiple Indicted on Charges of Theft and Re-Sale of Restaurant Cooking Oil”

>It's not toxic per se, but you can't just dump it down the drain. That's what the gutter is for: [VIDEO]