As the number of deliveries of mooncakes and other food-related gifts increase in the lead-up to next month’s Mid-Autumn Festival, the Department of Consumer Protection yesterday said a recent inspection of refrigeration and freezer trucks found the majority of the vehicles to be not cold enough.
Accompanied by Food and Drug Administration officials, the directorate-general of highways and local consumer ombudsman officers, the department on Friday last week inspected 80 food delivery trucks in Keelung City, Taoyuan County, Greater Taichung, Nantou County, Greater Tainan and Yilan County.
“Of the 48 trucks designed to transport food requiring refrigerated or frozen storage, 35, or 73 percent, failed to maintain the temperature in their cargo areas at a level required by the Good Hygienic Practices Standards (食品之良好衛生規範準則),” senior consumer ombudsman Wang Te-ming (王德明) told a press conference in Taipei.
Wang said eight of the vehicles were operated by four of the country’s most well-known logistics companies, with five from President Transnet Corp and one each from HCT Logistics, Kerry TJ Logistics and Taiwan Pelican Express Co.
By law, temperatures in the trucks’ cargo areas must be maintained below 7?C for refrigerated trucks and below minus-18?C for freezer trucks.
One freezer truck owned by President Tokyo Corporation measured 8.6?C, nearly 27 degrees higher than the legal requirement.
“Operators of the deficient trucks have been ordered to make necessary improvements by Sept. 10. Those who fail to comply could be imposed a fine ranging from NT$60,000 to NT$50 million or face suspension,” Wang said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods