More than 75 percent of major convenience stores, coffee shops and fast food chains continued to use polystyrene cup lids for hot drinks after the material was found to be non-resistant to high temperatures, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors said yesterday, urging Taipei City’s Department of Health to instruct local stores to stop using the lids.
Plastic cup lids made of polystyrene can withstand temperatures of up to 90°C.
The Department of Health (DOH) under the Executive Yuan said polystyrene should be used for non-acidic cold drinks or food, while for hot drinks, stores are advised to use containers made of polypropylene, which can withstand temperatures of up to 140°C and is resistant to acidic, alkaline or alcoholic beverages.
Both polystyrene and polypropylene are legal container materials under the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法), and starting on July 21, business owners will be required to include information on the materials, maximum temperature and manufacture date of the containers on them. However, the act does not mandate the use of polypropylene for all hot drinks.
A random inspection by DPP Taipei City Councilor Wu Su-yao (吳思瑤) and Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) found that only four out of 16 convenience stores, coffee chain stores and fast food chains in Taipei used polypropylene cup lids for take-out coffee.
Three major convenience store chains, including FamilyMart, OKmart and Hi-Life, have replaced polystyrene lids with polypropylene lids, and 85°C Bakery Cafe chain also used polypropylene lids for hot drinks.
President Chain Store Corp, which operates the nation’s largest convenience store chain, 7-Eleven, major coffee chains including Starbucks and Mr Brown Coffee, and fast food chains including McDonalds, Mos Burger and KFC continued to use polystyrene cup lids for hot drinks, the inspection found.
“The temperature of a cup of hot coffee can reach 95°C, and using polystyrene lids for high-temperature food can cause users to ingest carcinogens. The stores that still use polystyrene lids are ignoring the health of consumers and before the department takes more actions to ban the use of the harmful material for hot drinks, the city government should do more to protect our residents,” Wu said.
Taipei Food and Drug Division Director Chen Li-chi (陳立奇) said the department has been communicating with 7-Eleven and other local stores on the use of polypropylene lids, and the department will continue to conduct regular inspections on stores citywide to promote the use of polypropylene lids until July.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
‘SAME OLD TRICK’: Even if Beijing resumes individual travel to Taiwan, it would only benefit Chinese tourism companies, the Economic Democracy Union convener said China’s 10 new “incentives” are “sugar-coated poison,” an official said yesterday, adding that Taiwanese businesses see them clearly for what they are, but that Beijing would inevitably find some local collaborators to try to drums up support. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, made the remark ahead of a news conference the General Chamber of Commerce is to hold today. The event, titled “Industry Perspectives on China’s Recent Pro-Taiwan Policies,” is expected to include representatives from industry associations — such as those in travel, hotels, food and agriculture — to request the government cooperate with China’s new measures, people familiar with
RSS