FOUR DEFENDANTS were prosecuted on Friday in Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, because of their involvement in the production and use of illegal cooking oil that was used by a local hotpot restaurant. Southern Metropolis Daily commented on Sunday:

The Wenzhou restaurant's practice of recycling the oil used for the hotpot base and then mixing it with fresh oil will have shocked those customers who used to queue for hours to eat there.

However, the exposure of the restaurant's misdeeds last September triggered further investigation into the shady business, and it turns out that many other hotpot restaurants in the province have been employing the same trick.