The government has begun comprehensive efforts to tighten controls and track imported oil products starting at the nation's borders, Executive Yuan officials said today.
Since October 31, all oil imports passing through customs must contain declarations on the purpose of their use—whether as edible oil, animal feed oil or industrial oil (including raw materials). Depending on the purpose, the oil product will be managed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), the Council of Agriculture (COA) or the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), respectively. Businesses failing to acquire approval from any of the competent authorities will be prohibited from importing the oil.
Under the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation, oils intended for human consumption will have to undergo inspection by the MOHW. The MOHW has implemented several measures to reinforce border checks:
• Inspection applications for lard from Hong Kong have been suspended.
• Other types of edible oil from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao must undergo batch-by-batch (100 percent) inspection, and must be accompanied by documents issued by their competent authorities certifying that the products are safe for human consumption.
• Inspection applications for lard, beef tallow and mutton tallow from Vietnam have been suspended. Other types of edible oil from Vietnam must undergo batch-by-batch examination and be accompanied by official documents certifying product safety.
• Animal-based oil from other countries must be inspected batch by batch, while vegetable oil and blended oil will undergo random inspection (on 50 percent of batches).
As for inedible oil, the COA and the MOEA have clear-cut checking mechanisms in place to ensure that feed oil and industrial oil do not end up in foodstuffs.
Feed oil importers must acquire permits from the COA and report back each month on where the products have been sold in Taiwan. Those failing to report on time will be denied custom approval for similar products in the following month.
Moreover, from November 14 onwards, feed oil products must pass inspection by the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection before being allowed into Taiwan. The purpose is to ensure the quality and sanitation of imported animal feed oil.
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) is mandating all large enterprises including food manufacturing factories and hotel restaurants to dispose of their waste cooking oil through certified recycling institutions and to update the competent authority on where the wastes went.
As for food street vendors and small eateries, individual recyclers may continue to collect waste oil from them but are required to present evidence of forwarding it to certified disposal or recycling institutions. The central and local authorities must oversee and audit the recycling process.
Meanwhile, state-run oil refiner CPC Corp. is planning to increase the percentage of biofuel contained in fuel oil to 5 percent. This process could treat 70,000 metric tons of waste cooking oil in 2015, far exceeding the amount of waste cooking oil recycled each year (54,000 metric tons).
The Executive Yuan clarified a recent concern raised by legislators about inconsistencies in Taiwan's statistics on cooking oil imported from Japan versus Japan's statistics on those exports.
Citing the United Nations' International Merchandise Trade Statistics: Concepts and Definitions 2010, the Executive Yuan explained that a certain amount of non-comparability will appear in cross-country data due to differences in classification of goods, methods of partner country attribution, data coverage, time lags in reporting, value increases in intermediary countries, and trade via third country intermediaries. What is certain is that the government has been fully monitoring and controlling the flow of imported oil since October 31, the Executive Yuan stressed.
All food products tainted with problematic oil have been announced and pulled from shelves. The last batches of problematic foods have passed their expiry dates and are thus no longer in stores. The government is announcing the list of tainted products for the public to seek compensation. The Executive Yuan's Department of Consumer Protection has tasked the Consumers' Foundation, Chinese Taipei and the Taiwan Consumer Protection Association to file a class-action suit on behalf of victims by the end of November.