title: Gutter oil: an overview of Chinese food safety issues and policies.
abstract: Food safety has become a focus of attention worldwide. In China, one of the top concerns in food safety is gutter oil, known as 'swill-cooked oil'. This Commentary summarizes the key incidents disclosed to the public by the media, and the policies regarding gutter oil at national, regional, and provincial or city levels. Several challenges the country still faces in tackling this issue are identified, including a lack of evaluation of the implementation and effect of the policies, a lack of effective technology to detect and recycle gutter oil, and the overlooking of the hazardous effect of gutter oil on health. This commentary suggests that strengthening policy implementation and evaluation, improving measurement and recycling technologies, and launching public health campaigns would help eliminate gutter oil from dining tables.
authors.affiliation: 1 School of Medicine, Jinhua Polytechnic College, Jinhua, Zhejiang, China.|2 School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: 2 School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
authors.forename: Naixue
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: 2 School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
authors.forename: Jianghong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D003296:Cooking; D063427:Food Quality; D059022:Food Safety; D005524:Food Technology / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D009821:Oils / Q000009:adverse effects*
chemical_list: D009821:Oils
keywords: China; food safety; gutter oil; policy