Used cooking oil / UCO has been liquid gold for carbon credit maxing as feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel. Sells more per unit than cooking oil, so much so there's fraud going around mixing UCO into fresh cooking oil for resale. There's tariff shenanigans over PRC UCO exports, so now US UCO = $$$.
The broader TLRD is there's no market for gutter oil for cooking anymore when UCO sell more to industrial recyclers. Gutter oil for cooking in PRC, TW disapeared once waste cooking oil recycling industries sprung up. I think SKR avoided it all together by building biodesel management earlier.
It is absolutely material to this story though? These people will likely serve their jail or prison sentence and then be forcibly returned to China where they will immediately undergo their re-education.
At least they are using it for Biodiesel.
This happens daily in China, hundreds of thousands of people collect used oil from drains/sewers and sell it to a refinery.
However, the refinery doesn't turn it into bio-diesel; they clean it up and resell it as new cooking oil.
Yes, the restaurants have a contract with a waste oil processor. The oil gets picked up and is used to make soap, cosmetics, biodiesel, or other products.
I'm not sure what the restaurant gets paid for it, probably not a lot, they may even have to pay for the service like they do for trash dumpsters. But unlike trash, the oil has a value so they probably do get paid a little bit.
They are also legally required to dispose of waste cooking oil properly. It's not toxic per se, but you can't just dump it down the drain.
I don't know why restaurants need to use oil in this waste-generating way, presumably for frying. All of the same things can be cooked in an air fryer oven without oil. Granted, it takes longer, and uses plenty of electricity, but it can be done all day long.
If you consider 1. Almost no restaurants have made this substitution and 2. Cooking oil is pretty expensive, then you can realize that 3. No, air fryers are not a quality substitute for real frying
This is completely incorrect. Air-fryers are just small ovens, they do not meaningfully crisp almost anything without serious modifications to the recipe and approach, and most crispy textures can only be properly achieved by deep frying. Air fryers are mostly useless and the name borders on fraud IMO.
This seems like you’ve never used an air fryer. They aren’t a replacement for a deep fryer, of course, but they can certainly crisp many different foods much differently from a traditional oven. The high cfm convection of an air fryer makes food behave much differently than a regular oven or a standard convection oven.
Air fryer cultists must administer lidocaine prior to eating or something, air fryers can't even get close to proper deep or shallow frying, unless you are re-warming something pre-packaged that was already deep fried prior. The "crisp" achieved from air frying is woefully inferior, and no serious chef or anyone with basic cooking experience defends them for anything other than trivial use-cases. They do not behave meaningfully different in any way from a good convection oven, countertop or otherwise, and are less versatile (and yes, cheap convection ovens do have worse circulation, but good ones do not have this problem, or even just have an air fry mode anyway).
EDIT: So to be clear, yes, there is a narrow use case for people who can't afford e.g. a good countertop convection oven (same thing as an air fryer but more versatile) or decent convection oven, and for whom cooking consists mostly of store-bought and pre-cooked small meals for 1-2 people max, and definitely for people that don't care about the dramatic textural difference from actual fried food, or that aren't attempting to emulate fried food with it.
But air frying was mentioned by GP as an alternative for restaurants in place of deep frying, which is woefully out of touch with the most basic facts of reality.
> They do not behave meaningfully different in any way from a good convection oven, countertop or otherwise, and are less versatile (and yes, cheap convection ovens do have worse circulation, but good ones do not have this problem, or even just have an air fry mode anyway).
Chris Young, of Modernist Cuisine and Chefsteps fame, disagrees with you. There’s a difference in the physical construction of actual air fryers vs just fast convection ovens. Every convection oven/air fryer combo I’ve ever seen has the fan on the side, so the behavior and performance is different.
They cook, which is the point. Being crisp isn't actually necessary. Being cooked is. If it's really necessary, one can always use spray oil before inserting them into the air fryer.
Actually a microwave or steamer or cooker works fine for me for things that can cook so simply, but not everything can.
Some things require a fryer. The point is that there is a 1:1 correspondence between what can cook in an oil fryer versus what can cook in an air fryer, and the result is 85% as crisp.
In fact I hold the oil against the restaurant because the oil is a multi-faceted health hazard.
Used cooking oil / UCO has been liquid gold for carbon credit maxing as feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel. Sells more per unit than cooking oil, so much so there's fraud going around mixing UCO into fresh cooking oil for resale. There's tariff shenanigans over PRC UCO exports, so now US UCO = $$$.
The broader TLRD is there's no market for gutter oil for cooking anymore when UCO sell more to industrial recyclers. Gutter oil for cooking in PRC, TW disapeared once waste cooking oil recycling industries sprung up. I think SKR avoided it all together by building biodesel management earlier.
Actual title: Multiple Chinese Nationals Indicted...
Because the color of your passport matters in the criminal justice system
It is absolutely material to this story though? These people will likely serve their jail or prison sentence and then be forcibly returned to China where they will immediately undergo their re-education.
[dead]
This is part of a broader trend of increased Chinese organized crime in the US. The Chinese government encourages and profits from activity like this.
It’s site rules to use the exact title, even if there are misspellings
I put all the available court filings from PACER on RECAP https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72028072/united-states-...
Used oil and grease theft is fairly valuable to use for biodiesel. Theft has actually been a problem for a while.
Actually the first thing that came to mind for me was re-using used oil for cooking.
To add to the bit... Simpsons Did It!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu24aQ3D5sk
At least they are using it for Biodiesel. This happens daily in China, hundreds of thousands of people collect used oil from drains/sewers and sell it to a refinery. However, the refinery doesn't turn it into bio-diesel; they clean it up and resell it as new cooking oil.
Oh no, not the Used Cooking Oil. Thank you DoJ for keeping our streets safe.
Seriously though, what's the usual lifecycle for those waste oil tanks? Will the owner sell the contents to a recycler when it's full?
Yes, the restaurants have a contract with a waste oil processor. The oil gets picked up and is used to make soap, cosmetics, biodiesel, or other products.
I'm not sure what the restaurant gets paid for it, probably not a lot, they may even have to pay for the service like they do for trash dumpsters. But unlike trash, the oil has a value so they probably do get paid a little bit.
They are also legally required to dispose of waste cooking oil properly. It's not toxic per se, but you can't just dump it down the drain.
> but you can't just dump it down the drain
The search keyword is the day is "fatberg".
>It's not toxic per se, but you can't just dump it down the drain.
That's what the gutter is for: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zrv78nG9R04
Read the article.
This is an organized crime thing, apparently there's a chinese mob?
These people were stealing oil from restaurants and selling it to downstream users for industrial uses (making biodiesel is one)
Google suggests at about $0.5 per gallon
Sounds like regulatory overreach attacking small businesses and innovation.
I don't know why restaurants need to use oil in this waste-generating way, presumably for frying. All of the same things can be cooked in an air fryer oven without oil. Granted, it takes longer, and uses plenty of electricity, but it can be done all day long.
If you consider 1. Almost no restaurants have made this substitution and 2. Cooking oil is pretty expensive, then you can realize that 3. No, air fryers are not a quality substitute for real frying
This is completely incorrect. Air-fryers are just small ovens, they do not meaningfully crisp almost anything without serious modifications to the recipe and approach, and most crispy textures can only be properly achieved by deep frying. Air fryers are mostly useless and the name borders on fraud IMO.
This seems like you’ve never used an air fryer. They aren’t a replacement for a deep fryer, of course, but they can certainly crisp many different foods much differently from a traditional oven. The high cfm convection of an air fryer makes food behave much differently than a regular oven or a standard convection oven.
Air fryer cultists must administer lidocaine prior to eating or something, air fryers can't even get close to proper deep or shallow frying, unless you are re-warming something pre-packaged that was already deep fried prior. The "crisp" achieved from air frying is woefully inferior, and no serious chef or anyone with basic cooking experience defends them for anything other than trivial use-cases. They do not behave meaningfully different in any way from a good convection oven, countertop or otherwise, and are less versatile (and yes, cheap convection ovens do have worse circulation, but good ones do not have this problem, or even just have an air fry mode anyway).
EDIT: So to be clear, yes, there is a narrow use case for people who can't afford e.g. a good countertop convection oven (same thing as an air fryer but more versatile) or decent convection oven, and for whom cooking consists mostly of store-bought and pre-cooked small meals for 1-2 people max, and definitely for people that don't care about the dramatic textural difference from actual fried food, or that aren't attempting to emulate fried food with it.
But air frying was mentioned by GP as an alternative for restaurants in place of deep frying, which is woefully out of touch with the most basic facts of reality.
> They do not behave meaningfully different in any way from a good convection oven, countertop or otherwise, and are less versatile (and yes, cheap convection ovens do have worse circulation, but good ones do not have this problem, or even just have an air fry mode anyway).
Chris Young, of Modernist Cuisine and Chefsteps fame, disagrees with you. There’s a difference in the physical construction of actual air fryers vs just fast convection ovens. Every convection oven/air fryer combo I’ve ever seen has the fan on the side, so the behavior and performance is different.
See: https://youtu.be/yw--NLjZBNk
They cook, which is the point. Being crisp isn't actually necessary. Being cooked is. If it's really necessary, one can always use spray oil before inserting them into the air fryer.
Yes, I guess we can just steam or even microwave all our food then, texture and moisture content is just an irrelevancy.
Actually a microwave or steamer or cooker works fine for me for things that can cook so simply, but not everything can.
Some things require a fryer. The point is that there is a 1:1 correspondence between what can cook in an oil fryer versus what can cook in an air fryer, and the result is 85% as crisp.
In fact I hold the oil against the restaurant because the oil is a multi-faceted health hazard.