People should eat more vegetables and fruits as well as drink plenty of water if they are afraid of consuming products containing swill mixed with various other oils produced and sold as lard, toxicology experts said.
Following edible oil industry crises in October last year, the industry has again been shaken after Pingtung County received tips of a factory manufacturing tainted oil, allegedly headed by Kuo Lieh-cheng (郭烈成), whose company reportedly reclaimed oil from kitchen waste as well as grease out of leather processing plants, and sold the final product to Chang Guann Co (強冠企業).
The Food and Drug Administration’s investigation into the case so far suggests that Kuo mixed his products in a 1:1:3 ratio, using one part each of recycled oil and three parts of lard per mixture.
Photo: Ou Su-mei, Taipei Times
Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital department of clinical toxicology director Yen Tsung-hai (顏宗海), said that the swill was easily oxidized, and that due to the unsanitary location where it was processed, may contain large amounts of germs, aflatoxin and benzopyrene, the latter two of which are carcinogenic.
Though swill commonly refers to liquid waste, in this instance it specifically refers to recycled oil collected from various sources such as kitchen fryers, restaurants and grease traps.
Yen also said that if oils from leather fabrication were used, depending on whether the leather had been dyed, minute traces of heavy metals such as chromium or arsenic may be present, adding that such materials often damage the livers and kidneys.
Yen said that eating vegetables would help the body rid itself of aflatoxin, adding that fruits rich in vitamin C would also help expel benzopyrene.
Separately, colon and rectal surgery expert Wang Jaw-yuan (王照元) said that whether the case has direct correlation with Greater Kaohsiung’s and Greater Tainan’s surge in death rates of patients with colon and rectal cancer over the past years required further research.
Meanwhile, Consumers’ Foundation secretary-general Lei Li-fen (雷立芬) yesterday said the government had failed to ensure that manufacturers check products themselves or send them for independent inspection.
Lei said that Chang Guann Co had been honored with an award from the General Chamber of Commerce.
According to Lei, the government or business groups, while bestowing awards on manufacturers, have not been rigorous in checking if the enterprises have carried out their social responsibilities.
These, she said, are the reasons why major food companies like Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全食品工業), one of the nation’s oldest and biggest food enterprises, have been involved in food scandals.
Lei also faulted consumers for their weak responses to the scandals, which she said allowed food enterprises to consider only their own interests and profits and ignore the need for establishing proper safety controls.
Additional reporting by Huang Chia-lin, Lin Hui-chin and Huang Yi-ching
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS