Talk:Gutter oil

Further suggestions for improvement
Whoisgalt, this is a pretty good start for the page. Kudos! A few more quick suggestions for improvement:


 * The article could use more wikilinks (see Manual of Style/Linking for a guide)
 * I think it would be valuable to state up front that gutter oil is illicit. That's not immediately clear, and it certainly important (when I started reading this article, for a moment I thought this was a legitimate practice!)
 * I suggest breaking the page into sections for easier navigation. Possible subheadings include 'types,' 'processing,' 'government response,' etc.

That's all for now. Homunculus (duihua) 03:30, 25 May 2012 (UTC)

Wow you must of been on wiki for a long time. Very very detailed in the adding info to the references. Now I'm dreading having to give so much detail myself. But I guess that's the grunt work of wiki so it must be done. Yes I figured people new it was illicit since I knew it was but now I know to not make assumptions. I'll try to polish it up a bit. Thanks for the helpWhoisgalt (talk) 03:51, 25 May 2012 (UTC)

I didn't purposely add the "example.org" thing I thought you did. I copied the address for the video and apparently that's what I got. Very strange indeed. I'll try to find it again to get the real address.Whoisgalt (talk) 04:15, 25 May 2012 (UTC)

Where did you find the meta categories "health in china" and "food safety scandals"? Is there some kind of database for these?Whoisgalt (talk) 04:35, 25 May 2012 (UTC) I've already picked up that we should add the title of the article with date published and the name of the publication so that's a good thing..


 * There are two methods I use to find categories. One is to go to similar or related pages and see what categories those pages list. Another is to type "category: ... " into the search bar, and just guess terms that you think may have categories. The autofill feature will do the rest. If the category exists,  you can add it at the bottom of the page.  Make sense? Homunculus (duihua) 02:28, 28 May 2012 (UTC)

Hello professor sorry for being so sketchy. I would like to see what ideas u have for projects...let me know I'll be here :-). Dounai  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.49.93.246 (talk) 04:01, 20 August 2013 (UTC)
 * “I think it would be valuable to state up front that gutter oil is illicit” Yeah I think this is a major problem with the article. It seemed to be trying to imply that “gutter oil” is used in China as a general term for waste oil regardless of its (legitimate or otherwise) use, rather than specifically and exclusively to fake cooking oil. Reading the linked English-language articles from Chinese sources, it seems to consistently imply “gutter oil”=“fake cooking oil” through their rather unwieldy English, but I admit we'd really need Chinese folks to clarify how general the term's intended meaning actually is in common use there. As such, I've made an attempt to reduce the article's ambiguity, though it's still super messy. 2600:1700:DA90:2AB0:E115:58C6:59D3:9987 (talk) 11:35, 13 February 2022 (UTC)

Things that need to be corrected
The phrase "Bleach is used to transform gutter oil's dark color into a more natural one and alkali additives are used to reduce the abnormal pH caused by containing high rates of animal fats. Tests solely using a pH strip to identify gutter oil will fail because the pH has been lowered to a level equivalent to legitimate oils.[5]" is incorrect, since alkali additives will INCREASE the pH, rather than reduce/lower it. It should be fixed to reflect that. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.136.85.237 (talk) 22:59, 29 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Of course the pH is decreased by alkali. pH denotes the concentration of H+ ions. Alkalis have a deficit of H+ ions and a high concentration of OH- ions. It's unfortunate that the layman may be confused by the notation that pH1 is lower pH than pH14. --  Ohc  ¡digame! 01:41, 10 September 2014 (UTC)
 * pH isn't the H+-concentration but the NEGATIVE logarithm. So alkali decreases [H+] but increases pH=-log_10([H+]) --07:25, 3 August 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.153.102.61 (talk)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130511043221/http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-10-18/news/30292607_1_cooking-oil-waste-oil-yuan to http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-10-18/news/30292607_1_cooking-oil-waste-oil-yuan
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140908225412/http://www.newschinamag.com/magazine/sick-slick to http://www.newschinamag.com/magazine/sick-slick

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Gutter oil is used as cooking oil
An IP user keeps deleting cited information regarding the illicit use of gutter oil as cooking oil. They replace it with loaded language such as "rumors", spreading uncertainty and doubt about this documented practice. I would appreciate others monitoring this page for such changes and revert them as needed. AustinPrince13 (talk) 02:14, 4 May 2021 (UTC)

"Another version of gutter oil uses discarded animal parts, animal fat and skins, internal organs, and expired or otherwise low-quality meat, which is then cooked in large vats to extract the oil."

Why is this considered as "gutter oil"? It's called lard and it's where cooking oil has come from for thousands of years and is still widely used around the world. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:644:4100:EC:2004:F67F:60DD:9726 (talk) 10:09, 3 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Key words "expired or otherwise low-quality," meaning rancidification has set in, and the resulting tallow will be contaminated with potentially deadly aflotoxins, rendering it unfit for human consumption. 2600:1700:DA90:2AB0:854:7EE:66F6:6978 (talk) 11:14, 20 October 2022 (UTC)

After an IP editor added the aforementioned typically vague apologia implying the term "gutter oil" sometimes refers to the product of legitimate practices, rather than exclusively to criminal counterfeit, I reverted it as usual, and then user:Taiwanese black bear appeared to immediately add it back as your second ever edit. As I only speak English and have relied entirely on translations from Chinese to establish the term's meaning, I'm holding off on immediately reverting your very suspicious edit, if you can produce any citations from reliable sources to indicate it is commonly understood to refer to anything unrelated to counterfeit cooking oil. 2600:1700:DA90:2AB0:FDCE:D186:C035:7ED2 (talk) 03:44, 14 November 2022 (UTC)


 * Hey, another IP user but just want to point out the fact black bear's edits were never undone, and the edit messages are... who believes that? It's called gutter oil. It's oil that came out of a gutter. That's it. 45.173.17.114 (talk) 19:14, 2 January 2023 (UTC)

Strange author name in references
Found a bloke whose middle name is apparently sexpat in the references? Also the link appears to be dead. This is my first post in a wiki talk page but I just wanted someone to check if this is correct. 91.148.242.134 (talk) 12:35, 12 May 2024 (UTC)