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Food, environment and health are top consumer concerns

Health insurance, food safety and environmental protection are the top concerns of consumers and the presidential candidates should address them, a Taipei-based Consumers' Foundation official said yesterday.

"Of those who responded to our online survey, 75.3 percent urged the presidential candidates to address policies related to national health insurance," Cheng Jen-hung (程仁宏), chairman of the Consumers' Foundation, said yesterday during a press briefing.

Cheng's foundation conducted an on-line survey between Sept. 17 and Nov. 30 with a total of 1,053 valid responses.

Although the quality of healthcare has improved following the launch of the national health insurance program in March 1995, issues such as rising health insurance fees and wasted medical resource have not yet been dealt with, Cheng said.

As a result, the foundation's previous on-line survey in 2005 found that more than 90 percent of the 43,000 respondents expressed dissatisfaction over the health insurance program, Cheng said.

In addition, the public is deeply concerned over the government's capability to safeguard food safety following a series of scandals.

"News of mad cow disease, bird flu, tainted meat and poisoned cabbage over recent years has lowered consumers' confidence in food safety," said Chou Jia-hua (周家華), professor of the college of humanities and sciences at the National Taipei University of Technology.

"Some 900 consumers, or 65 percent of respondents, said they'd like to see the presidential candidates propose a food safety policy to protect consumers," Chou said.

The third major concern, expressed by 57.7 percent of the survey's participants, centered on environmental protection issues, such as pollution and global warming.

Consumers complained that the green mark, or the environmentally friendly sign launched by the Environmental Protection Administration (環保署, EPA) in 1993 to guide consumers in the purchase of green products, has not been very effective, the foundation said.
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