Chinese gutter oil producer jailed for life

A man from east China's Jiangsu Province was sentenced to life imprisonment on Wednesday for profiting heavily from making and selling gutter oil.

The Lianyungang Intermediate People's Court also ruled that Wang Chengkui, a shareholder and legal representative of Lianyungang-based Kangrun Company, should be deprived of his political rights for life and have all his assets confiscated.

Wang was accused of making cooking oil out of discarded inedible materials such as skins and buttocks of chickens and ducks as well as pig offal.

He then sold the oil to more than 100 food makers or oil processors in Anhui, Sichuan, Chongqing and Beijing from January 2011 to March 2012, raking in more than 60 million yuan (about 10 million US dollars).

Fourteen other people who were also involved in the case were sentenced to up to 15 years in jail and fined up to 5 million yuan, according to the court verdict.

China is plagued with a chronicle problem of gutter oil, which refers to recycled oil made from kitchen waste dredged from gutters or inedible animal oil. The oil, which contains carcinogenic substances, is dangerous if consumed.