Chinese restaurant staff jailed for cooking with ‘gutter oil’

Owners and staff members at three restaurants in eastern China have been jailed for using waste cooking oil to make hotpot, according to a news website.

More than 10 people working at the eateries in Wenzhou in Zhejiang province were given sentences ranging from eight months to just over 2½ years, 66wz.com reported.

The restaurant owners were given the stiffest jail terms, according to the article.

The group was arrested last year in a government’s food safety campaign. Some suspects were caught by police fetching waste oil, also known as “gutter oil”, from backstreet drainage near the restaurants.

They reprocessed the waste oil at small workshops in remote suburbs and sold it back to the restaurants for a low price.