Control Yuan member Cheng Jen-hung (程仁宏) said yesterday he might seek an investigation into the manufacture of pig blood cake (豬血糕) after media reports said the snack had been banned in the US.
Local television stations and newspapers cited unnamed sources in Los Angeles County as saying the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) had banned sales of the food, which is made of pig’s blood and sticky rice.
The USDA Web site, however, did not include any information about the reported ban.
In Taiwan, pig blood cake is usually eaten as a steamed snack — served on a wooden stick — or cooked in a hot pot.
Cheng, a former Consumers’ Foundation chairman, said there were also public worries in Taiwan over hygiene issues. He said people were concerned the food could go bad while being produced at room temperature or become contaminated in small or traditional factories.
He said that many people outside Taiwan only learned of the dish after it was voted one of the world’s 10 most unusual foods in a British Web site poll last year.
The reported US ban on the sale of pig blood cake could lead other developed countries to follow suit, he said, adding that it “would be a big blow for the traditional snack.”
Cheng said that he did not rule out applying to the Control Yuan to conduct an investigation into whether local authorities have been sufficiently diligent in ensuring local manufacturers maintain the highest standards.
At a separate setting yesterday, Lucifer Chu (朱學恆), who previously created a YouTube video promoting Taiwan’s pig blood cake, yesterday said that he will post a video protest on the site if the US does not lift the reported ban on the traditional Taiwanese food.
“Will the US also ban German blood sausage and British black pudding?” said Chu, who produced a bilingual video showing himself and other people eating pig blood cake coated with peanut powder and coriander leaves.
Chu said if the ban is maintained, he will make another video protesting what he called “cultural discrimination” by the US.
One of the local producers of pig blood cake, Lee Chien-liang, said the entire process is carried out in low-temperature, sanitary conditions. There is no contamination of the blood during the process, he added.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
RSS