On 11 January 2016, the EPA announced that the tracking agents developed by its Environmental Analysis Laboratory had been approved and can be added to waste cooking oil to facilitate the tracking of its flow without affecting the quality of other products when the oil is reused, or otherwise hampering the manufacturing processes of the reuse products. Furthermore, animal testing was done and the results showed that even if the oil were illegally added to food for animals, it would not cause health effects in the animals. In the interest of confirming whether tracking agents can be effectively used in tracing the flow of waste cooking oil, the EPA found it necessary to test the actual procedures that would be used. Thus in 2015, the Taoyuan City Environmental Protection Bureau was invited to cooperate in trials of adding tracking agents to waste cooking oil. This cooperation between central and local governments has already produced results in each stage of operations, including the adding of agents, inspecting samples over time and analyzing test results. The results showed that the flow of waste cooking oil can be effectively tracked from its source (eg, restaurant or food stall), to legitimate collection channels – whether they are individual recyclers or clearance organizations – and then to the reuse organizations. The agent can be detected all along the waste flow, showing that adding tracking agents to waste cooking oil is a feasible measure that can facilitate the management of the flow of waste cooking oil. The EPA stated that the trial was conducted in two parts. The first task was to analyze the effect of added tracking agents on the quality of recycled products. For this part, the EPA invited two reuse organizations to add the tracking agent into waste cooking oil before reusing the oil for manufacturing purposes. Care was taken to pilot operations or real manufacturing procedures in the reuse organizations. The products were then given to the Environmental Analysis Laboratory to monitor the tracking agents. The reuse organizations were also asked to simultaneously conduct their own quality control tests on the products and then evaluate the same sets of data taken from control tests of the same product to which the tracking agent had not been added. A number of tests also showed that there was no significant difference between products to which tracking agents had been added and products without tracking agents. Test data components included water content, acidity, iodine content, cold filter clogging point, free glycerol, viscosity, density, ester content, flash point, and pour point of the product as well as the oil wear test. To find out whether waste cooking oil laced with tracking agents could have long term health effects on animals if the oil were illegally reconstituted into animal feed, the EPA commissioned the Department of Animal Science and Livestock at the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology to conduct tests on pigs. Analysis of results showed no significant differences on piglet development. As there is flexibility for adjusting the composition of tracking agents, the EPA stated that if there is a need for further management measures in the future, the Environmental Analysis Laboratory can develop different tracking agents based on the recycling channels in different regions.