The Executive Yuan last night denied that Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) has approved Minister of Agriculture Chen Chi-chung’s (陳吉仲) resignation over controversies surrounding imported eggs.
Cabinet spokesman Lin Tze-luen (林子倫) was responding to media queries over rumors that Chen has tendered his resignation several times, and that the premier had not approved it until yesterday.
Chen offered a verbal resignation, but the premier asked the minister to stay in his post, as he has the responsibility to continue to address public doubts surrounding imported eggs, Lin said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
A slew of controversies concerning eggs imported from Brazil have risen in recent weeks. The eggs were part of a special egg importation program introduced by the ministry to address a nationwide shortage earlier this year.
The eggs imported from Brazil were found to have been mislabeled with an incorrect expiration date, and egg shipments from Brazil were found to contain florfenicol and chloramphenicol residues.
Chen has held two press conferences this month to address the issue. He said that the government had monitored the imported eggs closely and members of the public did not need to worry about purchasing expired or broken eggs.
A total of 140 million eggs were imported to Taiwan from March to July, and 24.91 million have been sold to markets and around 54.04 million were either broken or destroyed due to mislabeled expiration dates, the Ministry of Agriculture said.
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