President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday pledged to strengthen inspections on food and beverage manufacturers and severely punish those with problematic products amid a scare over adulturated cooking oils.
Presiding over the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Central Standing Committee, Ma, who doubles as the party chairman, instructed the Ministry of Health and Welfare to hold a national food safety conference next month to address the issue.
“Food safety is a long-term issue, and the government will catch the bad manufacturers one by one and ensure food safety in Taiwan,” he said following the ministry’s report on the latest food safety scandal in which a major cooking oil company was found adulturating and mislabeling its oils.
Photo: CNA
As of Tuesday, the Chang Chi Foodstuff Factory Co had been fined NT$28.6 million (US$972,700) earlier this month, in accordance with the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法), after authorities found that its products had been adulterated.
Suspicious consumers had questioned the quality of the firm’s cooking oil and tips from whistle-blowers in the company helped break the story.
Ma defended the government’s efforts to address food safety issues that have emerged in recent years, from plasticizers and toxic starch to the problematic cooking oils, and promised to increase manpower and budgets to enhance food safety.
“The problems have been there for a while, but they began to emerge only in recent years… It gives us a chance to examine the long-existing issues and resolve them,” he said.
Separately yesterday, Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達), in response to repeated media enquiries on whether he would take political responsibility for alleged negligence in the food inspection process, said he “takes full responsibility for cracking down on ‘black-hearted’ food suppliers.”
“No matter when [the incidents] happened, [even] if it was my predecessor in the office, I will take full responsibility,” he said.
Meanwhile, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Woody Duh (杜紫軍) said he disagreed with lawmakers who called for the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification — the government-backed label — be abolished on ground that the Chang Chi incident has proved the accreditation systems had been discredited.
Chang Chi was able to receive 17 GMP certifications for its edible oil products because it provided the Industrial Development Bureau with “misinformation about its manufacturing processes” to obtain the certificates, Duh said.
To address the loophole and others, the bureau is reviewing the GMP system and might require a manufacturer to present its import-export invoices and declarations and to allow on-the-spot inspection of its production lines when it seeks certification, Duh said.
The ministry will ensure that GMP is a guarantee for safety, Duh said, adding that “without the GMP system, consumers would be more exposed to unsafe foods.”
Duh said the ministry would complete ingredient testing of all 20 edible oil products advertised as 100 percent natural and unadulterated in two days and of all 129 blended cooking oil products within one week to ensure that products on the market are safe.
People who have information about suspicious food products can (02) 2325-0955, Duh said.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) tendered his resignation last night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by media. His resignation was immediately accepted by the Control Yuan. In a statement explaining why he had resigned, Lee apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon on May 20. The issue first came to light late last month, when TVBS News reported that Lee had instructed his driver to take the dog to the salon. The news channel broadcast photos that it said were taken by an unnamed whistle-blower, which purportedly showed the
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
RSS