The Taipei City Government yesterday said it would schedule new inspections at a Zhongshan District (中山) stinky tofu shop that has already been fined NT$585,000 for odor violations, following a social media user’s claim that the smell was affecting her mental health.
In a post on Threads on Wednesday, a user said the smell from the Yuli Qiaotou stinky tofu shop (玉里橋頭臭豆腐), near Jiannan Road MRT Station, had been causing her “severe anxiety.”
The user said that in her distress, she had pulled out much of her hair, and included photographs of her mostly bald scalp, and what appeared to be a pile of lost hair and ointments prescribed by a doctor.
Photo: Wang Han-ping, Taipei Times
As of yesterday, the post had been “liked” more than 19,000 times.
Taipei Environmental Protection Department inspection team head Yen Ling-chen (顏伶珍) said the agency had made multiple visits to the restaurant in response to public complaints dating back to December 2024.
On Feb. 9 last year, the agency conducted an odor concentration test at the restaurant, and odor odor levels more than 10 times the legal limit were detected, Yen said.
The department issued the restaurant a NT$585,000 fine for contravening the Air Pollution Control Act (空氣污染防制法), she said.
At a follow-up visit on April 20 last year, inspectors confirmed that the shop had installed a kitchen fume cleaner, a commercial dishwasher and a plasma odor elimination system, all of which brought odor concentration levels to within legal limits, Yen said.
The number of odor complaints against the restaurant then dropped to two to three per month, and subsequent inspections found no compliance issues, Yen added.
However, complaints have spiked again, and given that it has been a while since the last inspection, an odor assessment would likely be carried out after the Lunar New Year holiday, she said.
Yen encouraged the public to suggest specific locations for the test to ensure that their concerns are addressed.
Several people commenting on the Threads post confirmed there was a strong odor surrounding the shop, but it was unclear whether it was due to the stinky tofu’s potency or poor ventilation.
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