The Ministry of Health and Welfare yesterday vowed to conduct a full-scale inspection of food commodities starting next year to crack down on irregularities as it inked a food safety memorandum of understanding with National Taiwan University.
“The spate of cooking oil scandals in the past few months have threatened social stability. Because oil is essential in a variety of industries, it could have widespread effects if it is contaminated or adulterated with problematic ingredients,” Minister of Health and Welfare Chiang Been-huang (蔣丙煌) said on the sidelines of the signing ceremony in Taipei.
In light of the oil scares, Chiang said the ministry plans to inspect all kinds of food commodities, while assuring the public that all the cooking oil products on the shelves are safe to use after the ministry’s extensive inspection of the nation’s large-scale oil manufacturers in previous months.
“The focus of our future inspections will be food commodities, such as sugar, salt, soybeans and soy sauce, with flour being our first target. In addition to a full-scale examination, the ministry is due to carry out food safety risk assessments on commodity goods that are most prone to adulteration,” Chiang said.
According to the ministry, it is the first time that a government agency has established cooperation with a university as a whole rather than with a single department or research center.
“Instead of collaborating with the university on just one aspect, the ministry is to take advantage of the reputed institution’s knowledge on every aspect of food safety management, including risk assessment, testing techniques, certification systems, as well as laws and regulations,” the ministry said in a press release issued after the ceremony.
University president Yang Pan-chyr (楊泮池) said food scares have unnerved the public and the university is willing to join forces with the ministry to improve the nation’s food safety system.
“We are to establish a food safety center consisting of the school’s biomedical, agrochemical, social science, legal, electrical engineering and information technology talent. The center will be overseen by university vice president Chen Liang-gee (陳良基), and is expected to serve as an impartial third-party testing unit for the government,” Yang said.
Yang said that funding for the center will be provided by the university and the public, but added that it “will not take a dime from the Wei (魏) family,” referring to the four brothers who own Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團), which has been linked to a recent adulterated cooking oil scandal.
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