Yeh, who the Cabinet announced late on Thursday night would be the official to replace Lin, took over the DOH yesterday afternoon as the new health minister in a hand-over ceremony.
“In the future, there will be no more numbers [ppm] mentioned in melamine tests, only positive or negative for presence of melamine,” he said.
“People only need to know whether it is safe to consume … As long as it has passed the test, it will be allowed on the market,” Yeh said, adding that the department will ensure all products on the shelves are fit for consumption.
To expedite testing, the department will soon certify 19 laboratories, including the Food Industry Research and Development Institute, for melamine testing, he said.
“In two weeks, we will meet experts in the US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the EU to collaborate on solutions to the melamine problem,” Yeh said, vowing “to find a fair way to test for melamine despite different instruments.”
Different testing instruments have different sensitivities in testing melamine.
Yeh yesterday also said that if the DPP had doubts, it could gather its own experts.
“Science does not involve politics,” he said. “We welcome DPP experts to discuss possible solutions together.”
During the ceremony yesterday, which was overseen by Minister Without Portfolio Chang Chin-fu (張進福), Lin said that no one has fallen sick in Taiwan because of having consumed melamine, except in China and other countries, and asked “so are we only scaring ourselves? Is it really necessary to make this into a SARS of food [safety]?”
But he reminded the department, “Don’t forget that we are a democratic country. If people complain to us about food safety, it is our responsibility to evaluate what went wrong.”
National Yang-Ming University Hospital reported yesterday that three Taiwanese toddlers and one woman had developed kidney stones after drinking tainted Chinese milk products.
All four victims had frequently visited China and the three children, all aged between two and three, drank Chinese milk formula, the hospital said.
“The hospital screened nine children who have been drinking milk suspected of containing melamine ... and three are found to have kidney stones,” it said in a statement, adding the mother of one of the children also has the condition.
Additional reporting by AFP
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