Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) yesterday said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) might extend an import ban on some companies for importing industrial dye-tainted chili powder from China, and that the ministry would clarify the tainted chili powder import situation in a month.
The FDA on Feb. 21 imposed a three-month import ban on 21 local importers and manufacturers that had imported or used chili powder from China containing Sudan III, a carcinogenic dye banned in Taiwan.
The FDA said on Saturday said that since the ban, it launched an expanded inspection of the 21 companies, sampling 59 batches of chili powder for testing, and 14 batches were found to contain Sudan III.
Photo courtesy of the Hsinchu County Government
Adding five other batches detected in random inspections since February, the FDA’s publicized data show that 19 batches of tainted chili powder had failed inspections as of Saturday.
Hsueh yesterday said that the FDA has temporarily banned imports from the 21 companies, but depending on the ongoing investigation, the ban might be extended for longer, or even permanently for some companies.
The minister at the Legislative Yuan on Thursday told lawmakers that the investigation into tainted chili powder would be completed within a month.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) on Saturday said the ministry has first blocked the imported powder and is tracing its source and downstream companies, and that the problem should be cleared in a month.
Asked for confirmation, Hsueh yesterday said: “We will
understand the whole story within a month, including fully clarifying the whereabouts of the tainted chili powder.”
He said that while continuing to trace the flow of tainted chili powder and food products, the ministry would also ask suppliers and downstream companies to cooperate to speed up the process, while the FDA is to hold a meeting with food associations today to discuss having companies proactively test their products.
Regarding some lawmakers’ call for him to apologize about the tainted chili powder, Hsueh said “Being responsible is to properly deal with the whole situation, and apologizing might not help the problem.”
He said the difficult part about the issue is that Taiwanese generally like to eat spicy food, so imposing a total ban on imported chili powder is easy, but it would significantly affect people’s diet, as well as food companies’ and restaurants’ business.
Therefore, the ministry could only trace the identified batches for recalling the products and conduct further testing, he said.
Separately, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office and Kaohsiung Department of Health yesterday said that Taiwanese businessman Lee Yen-ting (李彥廷) used his relatives and friends’ names to establish 10 companies in Taiwan and one food company in China, to import the chili powder and supply it to downstream companies.
The 10 companies were found to have been importing products containing Sudan III since 2018, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors on Saturday sought to detain Lee, Lee’s sister-in-law, surnamed Wu (吳), and an employee surnamed Hsieh (謝) for alleged contraventions of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), as they are suspected of committing serious crimes and might flee or destroy evidence, they said.
However, the Kaohsiung District Court ruled that Lee be released on bail of NT$800,000 and Wu and Hsieh on bail of NT$200,000 each.
Additional reporting by Huang Chia-lin
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe