The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it would expand its good restaurant hygiene certification mark system to more shopping districts this year, and issue the mark in four languages.
After a rare bongkrek acid food poisoning case caused six fatalities in Taipei in March, many suspected food cases were reported in the city in the following months.
The city’s health department first launched the Food Service Hygiene Rating System in 2015 to ensure food safety and that food or beverage businesses meet the standards for personnel hygiene, food process quality, ingredients, equipment and appliance cleanliness, and facility management.
Photo courtesy of Taipei Department of Health
Stores that meet the standard receive either an “excellent” or “good” rating and a certification for two years.
The Taipei Department of Health’s Food and Drug Division yesterday said it promoted the hygiene rating certification mark at the Yongkang Street (永康街) and Xinbeitou (新北投) shopping areas last year, and 126 businesses passed the inspections and received the certification mark.
Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) said the department would expand its promotion of the certification mark to Ximending (西門町) and Gongguan (公館) shopping areas this year, adding that the department encourages restaurants to apply for certification.
Moreover, as the World Masters Games are to be held in Taipei and New Taipei City next year, the health department has designed a new mark in four languages — Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean — for international tourists choosing restaurants.
Separately, local news outlets on Sunday reported that a netizen who claimed to be a former employee at a well-known donut shop in Taipei’s eastern shopping district, on Zhongxiao E Rd Sec 4, found that the shop’s kitchen had poor quality and hygiene.
The netizen wrote online that the store receives many orders daily, but the customers do not know that there is a strong smell of rats in the staff area, many expired ingredients are being used, the coffee machine is never thoroughly washed, only rinsed with water, and rats have been seen running in the kitchen.
Asked for comment, Lin yesterday said the shop had failed an inspection on Nov. 13 last year and was fined NT$180,000 for having three types of expired food in its refrigerator.
The inspection also found rat droppings under the coffee machine, a dirty countertop where the coffee machine is placed, filthy storage under the coffee machine and an unchanged coffee filter core, she said.
After receiving the report, the health department would inspect the donut shop again to check its hygiene, and an increased penalty would be imposed if it fails the inspection again, she added.
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