The government unveiled a proposed regulatory regime on Tuesday to regulate the manufacture and recycling of edible oils in Hong Kong.

This is after the city was identified as one of the places where gutter oil originated from following the lard scandal which shook Taiwan's food industry. 

The new regulatory framework would require waste cooking oils to be collected by licensed recyclers.This was to prevent substandard oil returning to the supply chain of edible oils, Secretary for Food and Health Ko Wing-man said at a press conference which launched the three-month
consultation.Restaurant owners selling used oil to unlicensed collectors would face fines and imprisonment.Relevant restaurant and food maker licensees, subject to a revision of license terms, will be required to keep records of all transactions of waste oil sales.

The Environmental Protection Department will oversee the new licensing regime for collectors,exporters and disposers of waste edible oil. Likewise, they will also be required to keep a 12-month record of waste oil transactions.License registration of collectors, exporters and disposers of waste edible oils will be assisted by the department, which will go through the order 
and sales records for the past 12 months.

The authority also wants to state in the law which "waste cooking oils", as well as oils not intended for human consumption, should not be used as ingredients for edible fats and oils manufactured locally or imported into and exported out of Hong Kong.

The move follows Taiwan's lard scandal last October. Taiwan food supplier Chang Guann used industrial grade lard to manufacture edible oils - and Hong Kong was one of its export markets. A probe later found out Hong Kong was also one of the places where the contaminated lard had originated from.

Statutory safety standards for edible fats and oils would be updated to exclude more toxic contaminants. The peroxide value and acid value in lard would also be more closely regulated.
But Ko admitted that the regulations would have limitations as there was no universal testing standards to identify so-called "gutter oil" or "substandard oil".

It would become mandatory for edible fats and oils manufactured in or imported into HongKong to come with a certificate issued by an officially recognized testing institution. This is to certify that the edible fats and oils meet relevant statutory safety standards.Vicki Fong, a food safety expert at the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education, expressed concern that customers would eventually pay the extra costs of compliance if the new standard was too tough.