The Taipei City Government yesterday conducted a second round of surprise tests on cooking oils at fast food chains.
When the city’s Department of Health conducted arsenic tests at 130 fast food stores last month, eight stores failed the test.
Doughnut chain Mister Donut’s branch at New York New York Department Store failed a second test yesterday and was ordered to change its oil immediately.
Lin Chin-fu (林金富), director of the department’s food and drug division, said it would submit the results for more thorough analysis and that the branch would face a fine of between NT$60,000 and NT$300,000 should yesterday’s results be confirmed.
The tests came after consumers said many fast food restaurants used the same oil for more than a week, which can lead to the build-up of carcinogens.
A McDonald’s in Tucheng and a Domino’s in Yonghe tested positive on Monday for arsenic in their frying oil.
Lin said the department would expand the scope of the tests to department stores, supermarkets and night markets. The department plans to complete tests for more than 200 vendors and food stalls in the city by the end of this month.
More thorough testing will follow for street vendors if many fail the first-phase inspection, he said.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health said yesterday that no arsenic was detected in 10 oil samples from five fast food restaurants that it tested.
Hsieh Ting-hung (謝定宏), deputy director of the department’s Bureau of Food Safety, said that the five restaurants turned in five samples each of new and used oil for testing. All were negative.
Hsieh said there was no danger from arsenic unless a person ingests more than 3 parts per million (ppm).
“To ingest 3ppm, you would need to drink oil and eat nothing else the whole day,” Hsieh said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
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