With several biotech companies selling products containing banned chemicals, the tainted food scare continued to expand around the nation as the five food categories that require government safety checks no longer cover all potentially contaminated goods.
In a bid to put consumers’ minds at ease, the Department of Health (DOH) has required manufacturers of five categories of foods and beverages — sports drinks, juices, tea drinks, fruit jams or syrups, and tablets and powders — to provide certificates showing their products are free of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, or DEHP, and other banned chemicals. The measure may still not go far enough, however, to remove tainted food products from stores.
Lai Chun-chieh (賴俊傑), the owner of Yu Shen Chemical Co (昱伸香料有限公司), one of the main companies that used DEHP in its clouding agents, said that pastry shops were also among the company’s customers.
Lai, who is now being detained in Changhua, told prosecutors on Friday that seven popular jam, bread and pastry businesses in Taiwan were also major buyers of his plasticizer-tainted food additives. Lai was quoted by prosecutors as saying that he bought about 5 tonnes of DEHP every month to make flavor and food coloring agents and sold the products not just to chemical companies, but also domestic jam, baked goods and pastry shops.
Prosecutors found that in addition to clouding agents, Yu Shen Chemical also produced fruit jams in six different flavors — lemon, strawberry, papaya, orange, mango and pineapple — for three downstream companies. One of the buyers was suspected of having made bread with the problematic jam.
Health department official Tsai Shu-chen (蔡淑貞) said that the fruit jams, rather than breads or cakes, were the source of the plasticizers.
According to the latest DOH statistics, a total of 345 businesses have been put on the DOH’s monitoring list. The number of products subject to safety checks has increased to 855 items, including ginger tea and ginseng powder.
The New Taipei City Government announced yesterday that it had decided to withdraw Yu Shen’s business license and factory registration after being informed by the Changhua District Prosecutors’ office of Lai’s latest confession. The city government will also fine Yu Shen NT$150,000 for selling of chemical-tainted food products.
As the food contamination storm continued, lawmakers across party lines urged the government yesterday to activate the country’s national security mechanism.
That would require the president and premier to take the lead in handling the crisis that has sparked nationwide panic and harmed Taiwan’s business reputation in international markets.
The Ministry of Education, meanwhile, said yesterday that it has asked universities nationwide to remove from campus stores all food and beverages known to be tainted with plasticizers and anything else that has not received safety certification.
The ministry has also asked three medical universities and nine universities with public health, food or medical science departments to assist other schools in accomplishing the task before June 17, ministry officials said.
Representatives will be sent to universities before June 17 to check their progress, officials said.
Wu Trong-neng (吳聰能), vice president of China Medical University, one of the three medical universities responsible for the checks, said his school has been conducting free plasticizer tests for colleges and high schools in central Taiwan since late last month and would continue offering them until Friday.
Each school is allowed to send five products for inspection, he said.
Products such as sport drinks, tea drinks and juices are not allowed to be sold in elementary schools and junior high schools in Taiwan and were pulled off store shelves in high schools late last month, ministry officials said.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source