Hygiene inspections at restaurants in and around three main transit stations in Taipei by the city’s Department of Health saw 101 fail at least one control, while 80 percent partnering with food delivery apps failed inspections by the Executive Yuan’s Consumer Protection Committee (CPC) in the six special municipalities on ingredient and hygiene standards.
As summer is a peak period for travel and more passengers are expected to visit Taipei, the department conducted hygiene inspections from May to last month of restaurants in and around the Taipei Bus Station, the Taipei City Hall Bus Station and the Nangang Bus Station.
Of the 232 restaurants inspected, 101 failed at least one of the five controls, department official Lee Huey-jy (李慧芝) said yesterday.
Photo: Hsiao Yu-hsin, Taipei Times
Thirty-eight restaurants failed to have adequate appliance and equipment hygiene, 30 failed to have the required medical examinations for employees and 25 failed to prevent cross-infection in operational procedures, she said.
Self-regulation is expected of restaurants — including regularly checking expiration dates and labels on food containers in their storage area, and separating food that should be disposed of or returned — but the inspections found that 54 restaurants failed to implement the measures, Lee said.
All the restaurants that failed inspection controls were found on reinspection to have corrected the faults, the department said.
The Consumer Protection Committee said that in May, it inspected ingredients and kitchen hygiene at 26 restaurants in the six special municipalities that partner with delivery apps Uber Eats, Foodpanda, Honestbee and YoWoo Food Delivery.
Twenty-one of the restaurants failed on at least one inspection control, the committee added.
At 12 of the restaurants, eggs examined for pesticide residue and veterinary drugs passed, but two out of 20 vegetables examined failed for having pesticide residue that exceeded maximum allowed levels, it said.
The facilities of 20 restaurants failed the hygiene inspection, while six restaurants had expired food, it said.
Guanghsiang Longhua in New Taipei City had bell peppers with 28 times the maximum allowed level of the pesticide tolfenpyrad, while two types of vegetables had nine types of pesticide residue, consumer ombudsman Wang Te-ming (王德明) said.
The establishment also had six types of expired ingredients and its kitchen failed the hygiene inspection, he added.
The kitchen at the Huang He Restaurant in Kaohsiung failed 12 out of 20 controls on the hygiene inspection, Wang said, adding that cockroaches were roaming around the kitchen.
The facility of the Fuyao Sichuan Cuisine Restaurant in Taoyuan failed nine out of 20 controls on the hygiene inspection and had ingredients that expired in 2010, he said.
The Noodles of the World restaurant had vegetables that contained residue of three types of unlawful pesticides and residue of another pesticide that exceeded the maximum allowed level, Wang said.
The Food and Drug Administration is including restaurants that partner with food delivery apps in its annual inspections and will continue to require them to meet ingredient and hygiene standards, Wang added.
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