Appeal into gutter oil convictions opens

A court in East China's Zhejiang province has begun to hear an appeal into the conviction of 7 people for manufacturing and selling gutter oil.

Last year, 20 people accused of profiting from the manufacturing and selling of gutter oil were tried. Prosecutors said that from December 2007, seven of the defendants refined substandard oil from waste cooking oil and sold it to wholesalers as edible oil, seeing total sales reach up to 99 million yuan.

The wholesalers, including companies and individuals, mixed the gutter oil with edible oil and sold the mixture to retailers. Ningbo police uncovered a small gutter oil processing workshop in the city's Ninghai county and traced its origin to a major site for recycling gutter oil in Shandong province.