Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/11/05
By: Lu Hsin-hui and Elaine Hou
Taipei, Nov. 5 (CNA) The Control Yuan, the country’s top government watchdog body,
Bau Tzong-ho (包宗和)
decided Thursday to censure the Ministry of Health and Welfare for its poor management of food scares last year that involved edible oil products.
Control Yuan member Bau Tzong-ho (包宗和) said the public is very concerned about food safety issues and that the Control Yuan should identify those who should be held responsible in the case in which the lard and beef tallow imported by local food company Ting Hsin Oil & Fat Industrial Company from the Vietnam-based Dai Hanh Phuc Co. were actually oil intended for animal feed and not for human consumption.
When the scandal first surfaced in early October 2014, the health ministry failed to give an order to pull all the problematic products off shelves immediately, as a precautionary measure, although it already had an official document from Vietnam that proved that the oil products were questionable, according to the Control Yuan.
The ministry, instead, took a couple of days carrying out its own tests to find out whether oil intended for animal feed was used in the products — which Control Yuan members found unnecessary — and ordered all the questionable products to be recalled 18 days later. [FULL STORY]
