Government to amend food safety laws, increase fines after oil scare

By Jake Chung / Staff writer, and CNA

The government is amending food safety laws to better define the jurisdiction and responsibilities of central and local governments, and imposing heavier fines of up to NT$30 million (US$927,500) for safety breaches, Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday.

The move follows the discovery of excessive levels of the carcinogen benzopyrene in cooking oil manufactured by Central Union Oil Corp (中聯油脂), which has affected mid and downstream producers of oil and secondary products.

The Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法) states that while both the central and local governments are responsible for food safety, neither can unilaterally provide oversight, Shih said.

The proposed amendments would expand the responsibilities of local health departments to inspect, provide oversight and administer tests for local manufacturers, Shih said, adding that the goal is clearer responsibility.

Food safety incidents would be handled in the same way as epidemics or contagious disease outbreaks, and, depending on the severity of the situation, the central government might establish a central food safety command center to unify national response to food safety incidents, the amendments say.

The two guiding principles for dealing with food safety incidents are “prevention at the source” and “recalling all affected products,” Shih said.

Measures to preemptively remove products from shelves would be written into law and clearly define the extent of the product withdrawals, the procedures to be taken, and measures and approvals to put products back on shelves, or how they are to be disposed of, Shih said.

Increased fines are a focus of the amendment, Shih said, citing how Central Union’s delayed reporting of the incident caused the government to lose precious time in containing products at the source and delayed product recall measures.

The maximum fine for deliberately not reporting or delaying reporting, of food safety breaches would be increased 10-fold — from NT$3 million (US$92,750) to NT$30 million, Shih said.

The intention is to make the cost unbearable for manufacturers to prevent them from even thinking of delaying or not reporting safety incidents, he said.

Test labs, in addition to manufacturers or companies, must report to competent authorities if test results are abnormal or products contain excessive residual levels of heavy metals, carcinogens or other substances, the amendments say.

Shih thanked the Kaohsiung City Government and the Tainan Department of Health for assisting in the investigations, and Taiwan Sugar Corp (台糖), TTET Union Corp (大統益) and others for complying with investigations and supplying safe cooking oil during the incident.

He also thanked local health departments and offices for stepping up inspections and doing their part in maintaining food safety.

Separately, the health ministry said that of the 30 Central Union-manufactured cooking oil batches produced between April and last month, 22 were declared safe, seven were not, and one batch could not be tested because it had been exported to South Korea.

Nineteen of the 22 safety-compliant batches can be put back on shelves for sale, the ministry said.

The remaining three had never been distributed and health authorities might continue to put them under embargo, he said.

The seven found to contain excessive levels of benzopyrene would be destroyed, he said.

Shih added that Central Union had relaxed its standards for accepting soybeans damaged by heat loss to 5 percent, up from 0.5 percent, while failing to implement production controls.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director-General Chiang Chih-kang (姜至剛) said that preliminary investigations showed that heat loss tends to produce oil with a higher concentration of benzopyrene.

The changes made by the company might be the root cause of the problem, Chiang said.

The correlation between excessive benzopyrene levels in Central Union’s oils and the decision to accept more beans damaged by heat loss has yet to be confirmed by experts, Shih said.