A Taiwanese delegation of food safety officials and experts met their Chinese counterparts in Beijing yesterday, with both sides agreeing that a food safety mechanism is urgently needed following China’s tainted milk powder scandal.
Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Vice Secretary-General Chang Shu-ti (張樹棣) told the panel yesterday that although the SEF and its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), had played a significant role in notifying agencies about the contaminated milk powder, a cross-strait management mechanism to ensure food safety is urgently needed.
“Our visit today is to discuss the possibility of establishing a more effective communication and notification channel for food safety,” the Central News Agency quoted him telling the panelists yesterday. “We would also like to establish an inspection and management mechanism to prevent future food scandals.”
Chang said he believed both sides of the Taiwan Strait would agree that protecting public health is the most important matter and top priority in cross-strait exchanges.
To ensure the rights of the public and to protect their health, both sides should swiftly determine the genuine cause of the matter and draw up concrete measures to resolve the problem, Chang was quoted as saying.
Chang added he hoped that the face-to-face discussions among the food and health experts from both sides could help uncover the truth.
Only by learning what happened could the facts be discovered, he said, and only by being honest could trust be built, he said.
With the communication channel between the SEF and ARATS in place, Chang said he hoped to see the two agencies work together so the well-being of peoples on both sides of the Strait could be protected.
The CNA report quoted ARATS Vice Secretary-General Zhang Shenglin (張勝林) as saying that food safety is of vital interest and his association hoped to team up with the SEF to build an exchange platform.
Zhang said the meeting between the food and health experts was arranged by the SEF and ARATS. He hoped the model would create a sound environment to resolve the problem.
The delegation’s trip to China was arranged after melamine was found in a number of Chinese dairy products and food ingredients, some of which were exported to Taiwan.
Taiwan found out two weeks ago that 25 tonnes of Sanlu-brand milk powder imported from China in June was contaminated with the hazardous chemical melamine.
This week, some Chinese non-dairy creamers and malt extract products imported into Taiwan also tested positive for the hazardous chemical, resulting in a massive recall of products.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
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