China restaurant worker scoops oil from rubbish bin; eatery claims it’s for sale, not cooking

A hotpot restaurant in China has gone viral amid allegations that it was cooking with used oil taken from a roadside rubbish bin.

On August 18, in Chongqing, southwestern China, a netizen posted a video showing a woman in her sixties, surnamed Zhang, apparently scooping used oil from a swill bin.

The footage showed the woman dressed in the uniform of a local hotpot restaurant. She was carrying a ladle and a plastic bucket.

When asked who had told her to collect the oil, the woman responded vaguely: “I just started working here.”

The video quickly drew widespread public attention.