Associated Press5月，在北京一个推广食品安全意识的活动上，一名男子站在区分真假食用油的展台前。中国近期发生了一系列食品安全问题。

　　Police have arrested 32 people suspected of producing and selling old cooking oil that has been illegally collected from restaurant gutters, according to a Ministry of Public Security statement Tuesday (in Chinese).

　　 据中国公安部周二发布的公告，公安机关抓获了32名非法收集餐馆地沟油制售食用油的犯罪嫌疑人。

　　The statement said officials seized 100 tons of the recycled oil, which can contain carcinogens and other toxins that are harmful when consumed by humans. It said they also broke up a criminal network operating in 14 provinces and shut production sites where the oil is repurposed.

　　公告说，公安机关查获地沟油炼制的食用油100余吨。地沟油含有致癌物和其他毒素，食用后会对人体产生伤害。公告说，公安机关还摧毁了涉及14个省的地沟油犯罪网络，并关闭了炼制地沟油的工厂。

　　The suspects were caught in a swill-oil crackdown that launched in mid-July and is part of a broader effort to improve China's food safety, which remains a major headache for the country's leaders even three years after its largest scandal erupted. In 2008, milk contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine killed at least six children and caused illnesses in nearly 300,000 others.

　　犯罪嫌疑人是在7月中旬展开的打击地沟油的广泛行动中抓获的，行动是为了加强中国的食品安全。2008年，含工业用化学品三聚氰胺的牛奶导致至少六名儿童死亡，另有近30万名儿童患病。这起最大的食品安全丑闻距今已经三年，但食品安全依然是中国领导人的一个大难题。

　　Cooking oil is practically sacred in China, where nearly every recipe requires a wok to be filled with it. Those people drudging it up from the drains and sewers know its worth in an economy in which rising food prices have hit restaurants and consumers hard. They sift old pieces of food from the oil and then resell it to restaurants and vendors looking to cut costs.

　　食用油在中国的地位近乎神圣，几乎每道菜都要用到油。那些费尽心机从下水道和污水管收集地沟油的人知道，在一个食品涨价令餐馆和消费者备受冲击的国家，食用油具有何等价值。他们过滤掉地沟油里的食物残渣，然后将油重新卖给希望削减成本的餐馆和商贩。

　　Economic incentives are typically the drivers for food-safety violations, according to Sang Liwei, a Beijing director at the nonprofit organization Global Safety Forum. It's likely that most of those involved have no direct intention to hurt others, but they do so in attempting to protect their pocketbooks, he said.

　　非盈利组织国际食品安全协会（Global Food Safety Forum）前驻北京代表桑立伟曾说，经济激励通常是食品安全违法行为的驱动因素。他说，大多数涉案人员可能没有伤害他人的直接意愿，他们这么做是为了保护自己的经济利益。

　　Food additives, used to make produce bigger and meats leaner, have been the culprits of food-safety scandals in recent months. In July, a court in central China's Henan province sentenced a man to death with a two-year reprieve for producing and dealing clenbuterol after hundreds of people were sickened from eating pork tainted with the chemical, which speeds muscle growth in pigs but can cause headaches in humans.

　　用于增加瘦肉量的食品添加剂瘦肉精是近几个月食品安全丑闻的主角。7月，河南省数百人食用含瘦肉精的猪肉后患病，一名瘦肉精生产者和经销商被法院判处死刑，缓期两年执行。瘦肉精会使猪的肌肉长得更快，但人食用后会出现头痛。

　　Gutter oil has been a recurring problem for Chinese officials over the past few years. Most recently, in June, it emerged on store shelves for direct sale to consumers, according to the state-run China Daily.

　　地沟油的问题过去几年来一直反复出现。最近的一次是在6月，中国官方报纸《中国日报》（China Daily）报道说，地沟油被放在商店货架上直接向顾客出售。

　　Recycling waste oil has become a profitable business in many markets. In the U.S., many restaurants sell it to bio-fuel users, cosmetics producers and animal-feed makers. Some have even had to fend off thieves looking to make a buck on its resale.

　　回收废油在很多国家已经成为利润丰厚的一个产业。在美国，很多餐馆把废油卖给生物燃料使用者、化妆品生产商以及饲料制造商。有的餐馆甚至还对企图通过倒卖废油的挣钱的小偷进行防范。

　　Many in China are hoping that in the years to come, it won't be resold to food makers.

　　在中国，很多人都希望在未来几年，废油不会被重新卖给食品制造商和餐馆。