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
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