A six-month trial program requiring eight major retailers to mark the country of origin of eggs that had undergone “substantive transformation” was launched on Monday to address public concerns over product quality, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
Opposition politicians have been questioning the quality of imported eggs, including whether they have been used for “egg products that have undergone substantive transformation,” such as tea eggs, hard-boiled eggs, braised eggs and soft-boiled eggs.
Current regulations state that raw eggs processed into tea eggs or hard-boiled eggs can be labeled as made in Taiwan, but public perception of what qualified as “made in Taiwan” might be different, Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) said.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
That prompted the FDA to launch the trial program, and four convenience store and four major supermarket chains agreed to cooperate, he said.
The four major convenience store chains are 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, OK Mart and Hi-Life, and the four major supermarket chains are Carrefour, RT-Mart, A-Mart Taiwan and Pxmart, he said.
The recommended labeling methods include using a sticker, a hanging sign or a sign on a stick near the pot of cooked eggs to mark the country of origin, FDA Deputy Director Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said.
If a store is found to have made a fraudulent claim about the country of origin, it may be fined between NT$40,000 and NT$4 million (US$1,241 and US$124,050) for contravening the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), he said.
If a convenience store plans to sell tea eggs using imported eggs from different countries, the FDA recommends that they separate the eggs into different pots and label them respectively, Lin said, adding that the FDA has provided template samples on its Web site that stores can download.
When the six-month trial is completed and public response is positive, the FDA would initiate regulatory changes that would make it mandatory for all sellers and stores to include county of origin labels, he said.
The new rule would take effect two months after an official announcement of the changes, he added.
Lin also provided an update on an ongoing inspection of shell eggs at retailers nationwide, saying that as of Tuesday, 3,293 items had passed inspections on appearance and labeling.
The agency is also inspecting 80 items for animal drug residues, with 56 passing the test and the remainder still being tested.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
The Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office today requested that a court detain three individuals, including Keelung Department of Civil Affairs Director Chang Yuan-hsiang (張淵翔), in connection with an investigation into forged signatures used in recall campaigns. Chang is suspected of accessing a household registration system to assist with recall campaigns targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors Cheng Wen-ting (鄭文婷) and Jiho Chang (張之豪), prosecutors said. Prosecutors yesterday directed investigators to search six locations, including the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Keelung office and the residences of several recall campaign leaders. The recall campaign leaders, including Chi Wen-chuan (紀文荃), Yu Cheng-i (游正義) and Hsu Shao-yeh
RSS