A local consumer advocacy group yesterday warned the public that cold noodles may pose a health risk, with the majority of cold noodles sold in convenience stores containing harmful bacteria.
In a investigation report unveiled by the Consumers' Foundation (
PHOTO: LIAO CHENG-HUEI, LIBERTY TIMES
"Cold noodles, among other things, are hot items in Taiwan during the summer," said Shyu Yuan-tay (
According to Shyu, the foundation collected 22 types of cold noodles from five convenience-store chains in the Greater Taipei area in late May to conduct hygiene checks.
Based on its investigation, the foundation singled out two convenience store chains: Family Mart Co (全家) and OK Mart Co, as the most unsanitary retailers, with nearly three-fourths of the chilled noodles in their outlets failing to meet hygienic standards, followed by Niko Mart Co's (福客多) 67 percent, while President Chain Store Corp (統一超商), which runs 7-Eleven, was at 60 percent and Hi-Life International Co's (萊爾富) 33 percent.
All of the cold noodles contain over-standard Escherichia coli, which can result in such health problems as severe stomach pains and diarrhea, said Shyu, who is also a professor of horticulture at National Taiwan University.
Actually, any chilled foods, such as cold noodles, sushi and sandwiches should be refrigerated at temperatures below 7?C throughout the distribution process, Shyu noted.
But many convenience stores simply failed to follow the guidelines, allowing refrigerated foods to become breeding grounds for bacteria, he said.
Shyu stressed that with increasing numbers of people turning to convenience stores for quick meals, the food sanitation issue is more important than ever.
"Nonetheless, our report's goal is to raise public awareness and hopefully place pressure on retailers to improve food quality control," Shyu stressed.
In accordance with business ethics and the nation's Food Management Law (
In response, retailers said they would make improvements to comply with the law.
"We will ask cold-noodle makers, transport companies and store employees to closely monitor the temperature of food containers," said Wang Pao-yu (
Currently, sales of hot snacks and fresh food account for some 7 percent of the chain's total sale every month, of which cold noodles comprise nearly 20 percent, Wang said.
The foundation also reminded the public that cold noodles sold by street vendors can be even more dangerous.
"Without a centralized production process, the quality control of the food is more difficult to maintain," Shyu said.
He suggested consumers buy chilled noodles from retailers with sanitary environments and preserve the products in refrigerators.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by