Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) yesterday said the government would “not go soft on the food safety problem” and would do everything in its power to root out food manufacturers producing adulterated foodstuffs.
“Shortages of lard will be solved by the emergency measure of relaxing rules on importing lard from countries such as Japan and Spain,” he told a press conference, reiterating the government’s determination to clamp down on the production of tainted food.
Jiang said it was confirmed in the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s latest inspection report that Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Ting Hsin International Group, had imported oil meant for animal feed from Vietnam and is therefore suspected of food adulteration and counterfeit.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The Vietnamese government was contacted to confirm that the Vietnamese factory had not been manufacturing cooking oil, Jiang added.
The manufacturers that have been implicated in the recent scandal are major producers and wield great influence, “but the government will not go soft on them, regardless of their scale and market share,” Jiang said.
Because the strict measures might impose certain restraints and have repercussions on the domestic food and oil markets — after many downstream products had to be pulled off shelves in the past week and more are to be cleared from the market in the next week — consumers might encounter lard shortages in the near future, but the government would come up with supporting measures, Jiang said.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Council of Agriculture and other related agencies convened on Friday and decided “to lift the restrictions on the importation of lard from countries such as Japan, Spain and other developed countries,” Jiang said.
“Certification and inspection work on those products will be done with care, and the tariffs will be adjusted accordingly in order to have domestic traders import the products as soon as possible and to avoid lard shortages,” he said. “The upstream materials needed for lard making will also be quickly imported as an emergency measure overseen by the council.”
As the public takes transparency seriously, Jiang said he has also required the health ministry to make public a list of companies and products suspected of using tainted oil as soon as possible.
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
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
The New Taipei City Art Museum this weekend plans to celebrate its first anniversary with a two-day extravaganza featuring live concerts and a large-scale synchronized fireworks and drone display, the New Taipei City Cultural Affairs Department said. The two-day celebrations are to take place in the museum’s outdoor park, with markets and live performances by singers including Ann Bai (白安), Bii (畢書盡) and the Cosmos People (宇宙人), the department said. The highlight on both evenings would be the "Echoes of Light" show, an aerial spectacle combining fireworks and drone performances designed around the concept of "dual stages in the sky," it
RSS