Despite the government’s repeated promises to keep food safe, the nation has again been shocked — this time by the discovery that as many as 116 tofu products, produced by more than 20 food manufacturers, contain toxic industrial-grade dye. The discovery shows that the government’s prior moves on food safety were little more than sops to appease public anger, and that officials do not care about food issues.
There is an old saying that says: “Eating is the heaven for the people.” It seems that in Taiwan, “heaven” is not such a perfect place.
In this year alone, there have been at least 12 food safety scandals, which include false labeling, chemical residue, the illegal addition of chemical substances, revision of expiration dates and the marketing of imported or lower quality foods as locally produced or higher quality foods.
In September, it was discovered that a cooking oil producer in Pingtung County manufactured its products with recycled oil. Before the public was able to recover from that shock, Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團) was exposed for having purchased animal feed-grade oil from Vietnam and selling it as cooking oil.
Every time there is a food scandal, the government has promised to impose stricter inspections, amend relevant laws to impose harsher penalties on violators and vowed to put an end to the scandals.
Less than a month since the government’s latest vow, a new food scandal has erupted, and this time it was Hong Kong’s government that discovered that there might be banned substances in dried tofu snacks imported from Taiwan.
Taiwanese authorities have said they did not know that the chemical dye would be used in food production and “promised” to pay more attention to the issue. However, if Hong Kong’s government could discover the problem, why could ours not do the same?
Another sign of the government’s carelessness about food safety is the recent decision to halt the supply of water for farm use due to a drought, which will affect as much as 5,800 hectares of rice paddies in Miaoli County and Greater Taichung in the spring planting season.
In an effort to promote industrial development in recent decades, a great deal of arable land and water for irrigation has been given over to industrial use, bringing down Taiwan’s food self-sufficiency to about 30 percent.
The government has made repeated vows to improve food self-sufficiency, yet it has never done anything concrete about it. Whenever there are conflicts between the agricultural and industrial sectors over land or other resources, it has always been agriculture that has lost out.
The food safety and self-sufficiency issues may seem unrelated. However, they are actually closely connected, as, from a broader point of view, they both show that the government has scant regard for “the heaven of the people.” Moreover, they show that the government, despite whatever it has promised, regards the industrial sector and large corporations as more important than the lives of ordinary people.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lost badly in last month’s nine-in-one elections. Though the reason behind the election results may be complicated, one of the key factors was the food safety issue.
The government — whether it is run by the KMT, the Democratic Progressive Party or any other political party — should always deal with “the heaven of the people” properly.
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