Vice Premier Mao Chi-kuo, convener of the Executive Yuan food and drug safety task force, reiterated the government's determination to ensure the nation's food safety and crack down on violators at a press conference today.
The administration is determined to punish Chang Chi Foodstuff Factory Co., whose olive oil was found to have been illicitly adulterated with other oils and additives such as copper chlorophyll, and other lawbreakers, Mao said.
The Executive Yuan has already directed the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) and other relevant agencies as well as local governments to fully mobilize to track down illegal activities so the citizenry can be assured about the food they eat. Any substandard and illicitly adulterated oils on the market shall be speedily removed from shelves, and willful violators will be severely punished in line with the newly amended Act Governing Food Sanitation, assured the vice premier.
Mao stated that the Executive Yuan has responded without delay as soon as any major food-safety incident has been reported. For instance, after certain starch products were found in May to be contaminated with maleic anhydride, the Executive Yuan immediately set up a cross-ministerial task force on food safety, whose fifth meeting was held this Monday, October 21 to discuss and comprehensively review specific and general cases. The government is poised to take further responsive measures to deter future violations, he affirmed.
With some citizens debating the effectiveness of the current food safety regime, the Executive Yuan has demanded relevant agencies to hold a comprehensive review of current food safety mechanisms with a view toward potential reforms, including stepping up management of ingredients and additives (including chemical substances) at their sources, increasing third-party monitoring, implementing post-marketing surveillance and management and conducting complete evaluations of relevant certification systems.
In addition, the Executive Yuan is supervising the MOHW's implementation of its 10-major-action plan for food safety, strengthening inter-ministerial cooperation and swiftly establishing a sub-unit under its food and drug safety taskforce dedicated to inspections as well as crackdowns on violators.
"Investigations will be intensified in response to this outright attack on citizens' staple foods, and any illegality that is found will be strictly punished in accordance with the law. This administration is determined to protect food safety," Mao declared.
Meanwhile, the Executive Yuan is calling on all citizens, not just civil authorities, to participate in supervision and rigorously protect public health. The MOHW is seeking to expand food volunteer teams and bring over 130 college and university food- and nutrition-related departments together to establish a food safety alliance at the beginning of January 2014 to assist with checks on marketplace product labeling and manufacturing sites as well as the planning of a third-party monitoring mechanism.