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.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost