A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker yesterday accused the Ministry of Health and Welfare of covering up for big business, saying that the ministry had been aware of the illegal practice of using recycled waste oil long before the scandal involving edible oil manufacturer Chang Guann Co (強冠企業) broke earlier this month.
DPP Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) made the accusations at a meeting of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, which was called to deliberate issues concerning the tainted lard oil scare that has unnerved the public and wrecked the reputation of more than 1,200 food manufacturers across the nation.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director-General Yeh Ming-kung (葉明功) and representatives from relevant agencies were also invited to the conference to answer questions on the food scandal.
“In 2011, the FDA entrusted the Food Industry Research and Development Institute to conduct a research on the level of trans fats in prepackaged edible oil. Of the 56 oil samples it collected, two were from commercial-use edible lard products and one was homemade lard purchased from a traditional market,” Lin said.
One of the commercial-use lard was found to contain excessive level of trans fats, at 4.1g per 100g, the highest among all the samples, while the other had 3.29g per 100g, she said.
“In contrast, the trans fat content of the homemade lard sample was a mere 0.21g per 100g,” Lin said.
Existing food regulations set no maximum permissible levels for trans fats. Food manufacturers are only required to include them in their labels if the levels of trans fatty acid exceed 0.3g per 100g.
Lin said there are three sources of trans fats: the body fat of ruminant animals, hydrogenated vegetable oils and repeatedly used or heated oils.
Accordingly, if lard oils are found to contain abnormal levels of trans fats, the only explanation is that they are mixed with oils that have been repeatedly heated, which is the so-called used cooking oil or waste oil, Lin said.
However, Lin said not only did the ministry turn a blind eye to the discovery, it seemed to have deliberately left edible lard products out of a random inspection of edible oils it conducted last year.
From last year’s adulterated oil scare involving Chang Chi Foodstuff Factory Co (大統長基) to the current tainted lard scandal, the ministry has apparently tried to protect big food corporations by covering up their test findings, Lin said.
“If I were you, Minister Chiu, I would step down today to save my dignity,” she added.
Downplaying Lin’s claims, FDA Deputy Director-General Chiang Yu-mei (姜郁美) said on the sidelines of the meeting that the 2011 research was conducted for the sole purpose of serving as a reference for the agency’s stipulation on trans fat labeling regulations at the time.
“As for last year’s inspection, our examination target was primarily edible vegetable oil, which was why we did not run tests on animal fat samples,” Chiang said.
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