Hilary WongFriday, September 05, 2014
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Five men and a woman were arrested in the raid in Kaohsiung.
The gutter oil, which is a mixture of oil from drains, sewers and trash cans, was decanted into fresh bottles and mainly sold to eateries and bakeries in Kaohsiung and nearby districts.
According to the police, the factory, which sold about 200 tonnes of the tainted oil, had been operating for over a year.
Many food outlets and night markets in the island bought the oil because it was NT$10 (HK$2.58) cheaper than the usual market price. In general, pork oil is sold at NTS40 per kilogram but the "recycled oil" cost only NT$30 per kg.
Changguan, a factory that specializes in processing cooking oil, is one of the alleged buyers of the gutter oil while products from its subsidiary, Chyuan-Toong, are widely sold in Taiwan.
Police suspect food that contains pork oil produced by Chyuan-Toong may contain the tainted oil.
Another factory, Jinn Uei, which specializes in making pig feed, is also alleged to have mixed the gutter oil into their products.
According to Taiwan media ETTV, some oil storage barrels, many of them rusty and containing a yellowish oil, were found outside the busted factory.
The work desk was covered with black oil stains while a white layer of an unknown substance was found on the surface of the oil in the barrels.
Police had been investigating the case for six months before carrying out the raid on Monday.
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It was suspected the factory illegally collected rancid and sebum oils from a leather factory, and generated dirty cooking oil.
Apart from those arrested, police also seized 17 oil storage tanks, 23 barrels of leather sebum oil, an oil truck and order invoices. It was estimated that at least 200 tonnes of gutter oil had been released into the city throughout the year.
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