More than 36,000 tonnes of expired food is generated by Taiwan’s 112,130 hypermarkets, supermarkets, convenience stores and restaurants every year and much of it is thrown out, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
About 90.4 percent of the 36,880 tonnes of expired processed food is treated as waste and disposed of, FDA Food Safety Division official Hsu Hsu Chao-kai (許朝凱) said.
The remaining 9.6 percent is returned to the distributor or suppliers and used as animal feed or fertilizer, Hsu said.
The survey, conducted last month, asked 177 major food distributors in Taiwan — including parent companies of big convenience stores and hypermarkets — to report their estimates of the volume of expired food products generated by their customers and how such products are handled.
According to the survey’s findings, the restaurant sector, totaling about 100,000 outlets, generates 14,800 tonnes of expired food a year.
Convenience stores — 10,200 stores — generate 11,893 tonnes of expired food products a year, followed by supermarkets — 1,800 stores — at 6,337 tonnes and hypermarkets — 130 stores — at 3,894 tonnes, the survey showed.
Hsu said expired food products that are returned to their distributors or suppliers are to be listed as priority targets for FDA safety checks to ensure they do not re-enter the consumer market.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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