Following shocking revelations over contaminated oils being used in the food we eat, the Cabinet, keen to show that it is in control, has announced eight measures it says are designed to improve the nation’s food safety.
Specifically, these measures are to increase the penalties meted out on unscrupulous food manufacturers, increase the rewards for those who bring violations to the attention of the authorities, set up a tip hotline, improve regulatation of oil products and the management of recycled waste oil, enhance the three-level food quality control system, make it possible to trace all ingredients to source and revamp the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) system.
Last year, in the wake of the scandal over Chang Chi Foodstuff Factory Co (大統長基) mislabeling cooking oils, the government announced “10 major proposals.” Now it has proposed these eight measures. We have heard all this before. The Cabinet does not seem to have a clue as to what to do about the systemic collapse of the food safety system.
Of the measures announced on this occasion, the one that has attracted most attention is the increase in the severity of punishments that can be handed out to food cheats. This seems to be a cure-all that the government has slapped on the table for all of the food scandals we have had up to now.
The problem is, it cannot work. The threat of levying a fine of NT$1.85 billion (US$60.8 million) was brandished during the Chang Chi case, only to be gently retracted due to the legal principle of double jeopardy.
To deal with this, the eight food safety measures include the announcement, made with much fanfare, that fines for criminal violations in food safety cases could be 10 times that stipulated in the law, a technical amendment touted as a solution to a problematic loophole.
However, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) seems to have neglected the fact that the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法) has long had written into it the legal basis for judges meting out fines to the legal entity up to 10 times the amount of the fine for the actual wrongdoer. This latest measure is just a political stunt to try to placate the public.
Taking the idea further, you could say that fines do act as a strong disincentive, but it is a very passive approach. If this is not part of a comprehensive food safety system, it is not going to be enough.
Companies know that there are huge profits to be made from using contaminated oils or illegal additives in the foods they provide, and if there is money to be made somewhere, somebody is going to do it.
As far as this scandal is concerned, it is clear that local authorities have allowed these companies to get away with murder, undetected, for a long, long time, while the central government has allowed even the most basic checks and testing procedures for oils used in food to go by the wayside, and the checks that are done are only sufficient to confirm whether or not the oil has gone rancid.
This shows that the Food and Drug Administration and the local government health departments — repsonsible for the management of the nation’s food safety — are understaffed, and that they have already passed the processes used by these companies. It also demonstrates the the need for constant vigilance.
If the authorities are going to stop the rot now, they are going to have to stop dithering.
None of this means that we should place any trust in the few large corporations that monopolize the food we buy.
Without oversight by consumer groups or other civic groups, the issue of food safety would always be opaque to us, walled off by the jargon of standards such as Good Manufacturing Practices or Good Hygiene Practices (GHP), and officials and manufacturers are able to hide behind this jargon.
The majority of us have no idea of what we are eating, and so cannot make informed decisions about what we choose to eat.
The way to address the root of this problem is to increase awareness and knowledge of the food that we eat. This education can be done within the community, in schools and by individuals. We also need a supervisory mechanism in which the source of food can be ascertained. This is not a far-fetched idea.
School dinners are a perfect example of how it can be achieved. Given the amount of scandals that we are discovering, many civic groups have for some time been advocating the use of locally sourced ingredients in school meals.
This can be arranged by shool dieticians and health departments, and schools can also work together with small local farms and food manufacturers, placing orders and doing school trips, taking pupils to see where the food they eat comes from.
This would, hopefully, establish a relationship of trust between consumers and producers.
Food education is the key. We need to know where our food is coming from.
Japan has the Basic Act on Food Education. This law was implemented many years ago. Something like this would enable knowledge of food to be the foundation on which to create a sense of a collective community, encompassing individuals, the community, the environment and the culture.
Lin Tsu-hui is secretary of the Homemakers United Foundation.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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