The recent cases of waste cooking oil being illegally reused by unscrupulous enterprises caused significant food safety issues as well as panics of the public. How to solve the problem of waste cooking oil becomes a top priority. In order to gain a better understanding of disposal flows of waste cooking oil to ensure that restaurants and food stalls in night markets hand over their waste cooking oil for proper treatment and disposal, the Conservation Mothers Foundation was commissioned by the Environmental Protection Administration to investigate the flow of waste cooking oil in 2015. By random sampling and conducting questionnaire survey of at least one restaurant and food stall in night market in each county, the Conservation Mothers Foundation, with the joint efforts of 21 students from National Sun Yat-sen University, National Cheng Kung University, and Tamkang University, launched their field-trip investigation in May 2015. The results showed that approximately 60% of the waste cooking oil generated from the above mentioned sources had been handed over to licensed recycling operators, some went to local government collection team, and some went to reuse places such as soap-making, pig-farming, etc. We hope the result of this investigation will raise public awareness of food safety as well as encourage more people to pay attention to where their food comes from and where they goes, so that the diet in Taiwan could become better and safer.

Recycling of waste cooking oil, Restaurant survey, Night market survey