TAIWAN’S “gutter oil” scandal continues to grow, with more than 1,000 food manufacturers identified as having used recycled waste oil.

    Taiwan’s food and drug watchdog says by Monday, 1,209 restaurants, bakeries and food plants had been confirmed to had used the tainted oil supplied by Chang Guann.

    Nearly 800 tons of oil products have been confirmed problematic, with 140 tons already sealed.

    Chang Guann bought the gutter oil — recycled from kitchen waste, by-products from leather processing plants and offal from slaughterhouses — from an unlicensed factory.

    Kuo Lieh-chen, the owner of the illegal factory at the center of the scandal, was taken into custody Saturday. Five other people implicated in the case have been questioned and released on bail, news agency AFP said.

    Local authorities are stepping up efforts to trace the whereabouts of the rest of the product.

    Yeh Ming-kung, chairman of Taiwan’s food and drug watchdog, said: “We have found a notebook in Chang Guann, on which every transaction is marked with a distinctive symbol. We asked them what companies the symbols refer to. They have no choice but tell us and we write them down.”

    Mainland authorities have confirmed that no companies on the mainland have imported the problematic products.

    But they have ordered local authorities to suspend inspection applications filed by the affected companies and restaurants, and carefully examine their past export records.

    Taiwan police last week busted a six-person ring selling recycled waste oil made from kitchen waste and grease from leather-processing plants in Kaohsiung and neighboring Pingtung.

    Their products were sold to a number of oil suppliers, including Chang Guann.

    (SD-Agencies)