This year’s Mid-Autumn Festival was spoiled by concerns over the damage caused by Typhoon Sinlaku and worries about moon cakes and milk tea made with poisonous milk powder.
The Sanlu brand of milk powder manufactured in China was found to be poisonous because it contained melamine, a material used in the production of laminate paneling and disposable plastic utensils. Consuming too much melamine can cause kidney stones and even uremia. If one were to ingest melamine in a moon cake, drinking plenty of water would probably remove it from the body, health specialists say.
In these tough economic times, people have less money to spend on expensive, quality moon cakes, but buying cheaper moon cakes in a neighborhood store meant worrying about melamine. Consumer protection officials offer no solution, telling us that people cannot get their money back.
Is there really nothing we can do, though, apart from “sucking it up?”
A Department of Health (DOH) official said nitrogen levels double or triple for each extra part of melamine that is added to milk powder to make the protein count appear higher. The official said tighter tests and inspections on Chinese milk powder could help ease consumer concerns, while also limiting potential damage. But the entire import process shows that at the time of its importation, the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI) did not take any samples.
Even worse, the DOH did not investigate the matter until the Straits Exchange Foundation was informed by China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait. Taiwanese consumer protection officials have failed to reassure consumers and the government must take the main responsibility for this incident.
The number of food and agricultural products imported from China is much higher than most people think. In particular, products produced in China by Taiwanese businesses are imported via joint ventures and then sold in Taiwan. These products are often legally dubious as it is difficult to ascertain their country of origin.
The Sanlu milk powder was imported by the Taiwanese branch of New Zealand-owned Fonterra Ltd because of its cheaper price. It entered Taiwan easily because it was imported by a foreign-owned subsidiary.
If it had been imported by a Taiwanese dealer directly from the Sanlu Group, the BSMI might have paid more attention to the product and its safety.
On the positive side, this incident has provided the government with the perfect opportunity to establish a more complete set of procedures for monitoring trade with China. Regardless of whether the importer is a foreign-owned or a Taiwanese company, a definite set of standards and procedures should apply to imports from China.
To protect consumers, the government must lay down strict regulations requiring that the origin of ingredients be shown on the label. This would also help distinguish between locally made and imported products. Local products are often at a disadvantage because of higher costs, but are of a higher quality as they have to follow local regulations and professional ethics.
There is a market for cheap imported products. But to meet different demands and allow consumers to make informed choices, clear labels displaying a product’s country of origin are necessary.
It should also be mandatory for importers to provide liability insurance for their products to stop them placing profit above the health of consumers.
Lei Li-fen is a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at National Taiwan University.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
A series of strong earthquakes in Hualien County not only caused severe damage in Taiwan, but also revealed that China’s power has permeated everywhere. A Taiwanese woman posted on the Internet that she found clips of the earthquake — which were recorded by the security camera in her home — on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu. It is spine-chilling that the problem might be because the security camera was manufactured in China. China has widely collected information, infringed upon public privacy and raised information security threats through various social media platforms, as well as telecommunication and security equipment. Several former TikTok employees revealed
The bird flu outbreak at US dairy farms keeps finding alarming new ways to surprise scientists. Last week, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed that H5N1 is spreading not just from birds to herds, but among cows. Meanwhile, media reports say that an unknown number of cows are asymptomatic. Although the risk to humans is still low, it is clear that far more work needs to be done to get a handle on the reach of the virus and how it is being transmitted. That would require the USDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to get
For the incoming Administration of President-elect William Lai (賴清德), successfully deterring a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attack or invasion of democratic Taiwan over his four-year term would be a clear victory. But it could also be a curse, because during those four years the CCP’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will grow far stronger. As such, increased vigilance in Washington and Taipei will be needed to ensure that already multiplying CCP threat trends don’t overwhelm Taiwan, the United States, and their democratic allies. One CCP attempt to overwhelm was announced on April 19, 2024, namely that the PLA had erred in combining major missions
On April 11, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivered a speech at a joint meeting of the US Congress in Washington, in which he said that “China’s current external stance and military actions present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge … to the peace and stability of the international community.” Kishida emphasized Japan’s role as “the US’ closest ally.” “The international order that the US worked for generations to build is facing new challenges,” Kishida said. “I understand it is a heavy burden to carry such hopes on your shoulders,” he said. “Japan is already standing shoulder to shoulder