The Philippine authorities have told businesses to pull questionable Taiwanese food products off store shelves and said the country would accelerate signing a memorandum on cooperation with Taiwan to strengthen food safety checks.
Amid the recycled lard oil scandal in Taiwan, Kenneth Hartigan-Go, acting director of the Philippines Food and Drug Administration, said that despite insufficient manpower, his agency is still checking whether food products using the questionable oil have made their way into the Philippines.
Hartigan-Go said his agency is asking Taiwan to provide a list of food products using the questionable oil.
If they are found to be for sale in the Philippines, they will be destroyed, he said. However, he said importers and retailers would not be punished because “they are also victims.”
He said his agency is talking with its Taiwanese counterpart to sign the memorandum on cooperation, which would allow the parties to exchange several technologies and set up a bilateral warning mechanism.
He said that after the signing of the memorandum, the two sides would be able to more effectively check food safety. However, he also said that Taiwan’s recycled oil case is only an isolated incident and that the majority of Taiwan’s food is of high quality.
Compared with food imports from Japan, South Korea, Europe and the US, imports from Taiwan are relatively small and most Filipinos have not even heard about the incident.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
RSS