The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday urged the public not to eat wildlife or unidentified wild plants, as they could be fatal, with nearly 7,000 people affected by food poisoning last year, including two deaths due to wildlife consumption.
The number of food poisoning incidents increased by nearly 50 percent last year, from 398 cases involving 4,616 people in the previous year to 503 cases involving 6,944 people, FDA data showed.
That figure was the second-highest in history, the FDA said, adding that the highest number was recorded in 1997, with 7,235 people.
Photo: Hua Meng-ching, Taipei Times
Among the 503 cases, 87 were food poisoning clusters affecting 4,019 teachers and students, due to contaminated food provided by caterers, the agency said.
The major causes of food poisoning last year included toxins produced by two kinds of bacteria — Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus — both of which grow in food that has been improperly stored, the FDA said, citing as an example a person who fell ill after eating a souffle, as the dessert had spawned S aureus after having been left at room temperature for a prolonged period.
“Danger zone” is a medical term defined as the temperature range in which food-borne pathogens can grow, with the range falling between 7°C and 60°C, said Yen Tzung-hai (顏宗海), director of Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital’s Department of Clinical Toxicology.
In summer, high temperatures can easily cause bacteria to grow in food and infect people with acute gastroenteritis, which is characterized by symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and fever, Yen said.
Norovirus was another major cause of food poisoning last year, the FDA said.
Taiwan had no cases of death due to food poisoning for six consecutive years until last year, when two people died after eating wildlife, FDA official Chou Pei-ju (周珮如) said.
One died after drinking soup made with a “frog” that he caught, which was later identified as a poisonous Central Formosa toad, or Bufo bankorensis.
The other person died after eating self-picked wild mushrooms, which included false parasol, a poisonous fungus, Chou said.
Past analyses showed that some people accidentally ate poisonous toads thinking they were edible frogs, said Yang Chen-chang (楊振昌), a toxicologist at Taipei Veterans General Hospital.
The mortality rate in patients who consumed toxins produced by animals is higher than those produced by plants, Yang added.
Another popular misconception is that only animals and plants that are bright and vivid in color are poisonous, Yang said, urging people to exercise more caution, stop eating wildlife and safeguard their health.
The International Industrial Talents Education Special (INTENSE) Program to attract foreigners to study and work in Taiwan will provide scholarships and a living allowance of up to NT$440,000 per person for two years beginning in August, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) told a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee yesterday. Pan was giving an update on the program’s implementation, a review of universities’ efforts to recruit international students and promotion of the Taiwan Huayu Bilingual Exchanges of Selected Talent (BEST) program. Each INTENSE Program student would be awarded a scholarship of up to NT$100,000 per year for up to
BASIC OPERATIONS: About half a dozen navy ships from both countries took part in the days-long exercise based on the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea An unpublicized joint military exercise between Taiwan and the US in the Pacific Ocean last month was carried out in accordance with an international code, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday. According to a Reuters report citing four unnamed sources, the two nations’ navies last month conducted joint drills in the Western Pacific. The drills were not made public at the time, but “about half-a-dozen navy ships from both sides, including frigates and supply and support vessels, participated in the days-long exercises,” Reuters reported, citing the sources. The drills were designed to practice “basic” operations such as communications, refueling and resupplies,
‘MONEY PIT’: The KMT’s more than NT$2 trillion infrastructure project proposals for eastern Taiwan lack professional input and financial transparency, the DPP said The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday said it would ask the Executive Yuan to raise a motion to oppose the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ infrastructure proposals and prepare to file for a constitutional interpretation if the KMT-dominated legislature forces their passage. The DPP caucus described the three infrastructure plans for transportation links to eastern Taiwan proposed by the KMT as “three money pit projects” that would cost more than NT$2 trillion (US$61.72 billion). It would ask the Executive Yuan to oppose public projects that would drain state financial resources, DPP caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said. It would also file for
SELF-SUFFICIENCY: The project would only be the beginning, as Taiwan needs at least 120 satellites to ensure uninterrupted communication, Wu Tsung-tsong said The Taiwan Space Agency (TASA) yesterday said it plans to launch six low Earth orbit satellites starting in 2026 as part of the government’s plan to boost the resilience of the nation’s communications. The development of the technology gained attention after Ukrainians were able to access the Internet through Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) CEO Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite service, despite their infrastructure being severely damaged in the war with Russia. Two of the satellites would be built by the government, while four would involve cooperation between TASA and private contractors. “Over the past 30 years, the satellite technology in Taiwan has