Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih’s (葉匡時) remarks about cheap food products sparked criticism from netizens, with some saying the minister is trying to blame other people.
When asked on Thursday if he was concerned that the food safety crisis caused by the use of recycled waste oil in processed food might affect the nation’s tourism industry, Yeh said that tourists from China, Hong Kong and Macao might be discouraged from visiting Taiwan.
Yeh said the root of the food safety problem was that people prefer to buy cheap food. He said he wanted to write a letter to the writer Liu Ka-shiang (劉克襄), who has wriiten to the Chinese-language Apple Daily opinion page declaring he was against Taiwanese restaurant chain Formosa Chang’s decision to raise the price of its food.
“I want to tell him [Liu] that I identify with his ideal of living a simple life. However, if you put too much emphasis on food being cheap, it causes restaurants to cut costs and disrupts the supply chain,” Yeh said, adding the nation promotes night markets too much. In response, Liu said the problem is not cheap food, but the conscience of corporations producing food and the government’s management.
Liu said that many food manufacturers implicated in this crisis were reputable companies, whose products are not necessarily cheap. Liu also said that in his opinion night markets should not only attract visitors by selling cheap food.
However, Liu said he does not think there is a correlation between food being cheap and the use of recycled waste oil.
The disagreement over the root cause of the food safety crisis between Liu and Yeh also stirred up heated online discussions.
“Do the poor deserve to be poisoned by the food they eat? ” one netizen asked.
Others said that Yeh should mind his own business, particularly over problems with the freeway’s electronic toll collection system.
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