■ Business
Tea the top selling beverage
Green tea drinks have replaced energy and juice drinks as the most popular beverage, with a market share totalling to NT$5.4 billion (US$171 million) last year, according to industry sources and surveys. The figure accounted for about 25 percent of the total tea market last year, thanks to the perceived health effects of green tea, such as helping weight loss and reducing fat in the blood, a survey by AC Nielsen showed. Retail sales of hot green tea drinks were twice the value of packaged hot coffee drinks. Lipton Tea, which has long enjoyed the largest tea bag market share with its Indian tea, has also marketed a variety of new exotic green tea flavors mixed with lemon, mint and others in tea bags. A mixture between traditional Chinese green tea and Western flower and plant flavors is an ideal drink for modern people to reduce stress, regain vigor and refresh their minds, according to Lipton.
■ Culture
Ethnicity the subject of film
In an effort to promote Taiwanese culture, the National Culture Association and the Eastern Multimedia Group (EMG) yesterday announced the production of a documentary designed to represent Taiwan's many cultural identities to the international community. Produced by EMG under the supervision of the secretary-general of the association Chen Yu-chioui, the documentary, Seeing Taiwan Red, aims to explore Taiwan's rich and diverse culture in 10 episodes, including Taiwan Ecology, Taiwan History, Taiwan Dancing and Festival Taiwan. Attending the press conference yesterday, Chen said that the Taiwan Red is the color used in various traditional festivals, which best explains the passion and vitality of Taiwanese people. Lin Hwai-min (林懷民), founder of the Cloud Gate Dance Theater, congratulated the production of the documentary in a promotion video shown at the press conference. The documentary, which EMG expected to cost NT$15 million, is expected to be completed in one year and will be 60 minutes long.
■ Research
NSC official in Brussels
Deputy Minister of the National Science Council Chi Gou-chung (紀國鐘) met with Zoran Stancic, deputy director general of DG Research, European Commission, in Brussels on Thursday to discuss a cooperation platform and future strategy. Chi left Taipei on Monday for the Netherlands, where he visited the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. From Brussels he will head to Switzerland and then attend the annual conference of the European Materials Research Society in Strasbourg, France before returning home next Friday. Taiwan has participated in several multi-national research projects under the European Commission's "the sixth framework" program. The commission sent a group to Taipei last month to solicit participation in new projects.
■ Diplomacy
Chen hails LatAm allies
Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山) said yesterday that Taiwan's formal diplomatic relations with its allies in Central and South America are significant to the nation's sovereignty. Chen made the remarks while attending an activity at the Legislative Yuan to welcome newcomers to an amity association of lawmakers of the Republic of China and its diplomatic allies in Central and South America. The association, established in 2000, aims to promote friendship and understanding.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,