Noodle manufacturers yesterday accused the government of failing to protect businesses by publicizing their names before further investigation had been completed and not asking for inspection details from the Singaporean government, which earlier this week said that 11 Taiwanese-made food products contained maleic anhydride-modified industrial starch.
Greater Tainan’s regional specialty, known as Guanmiao noodles (關廟麵), has been listed among food products found by Singaporean authorities to be tainted with the industrial starch.
The Greater Tainan Government’s health department had randomly inspected six items, of which four were products and two ingredients, and yesterday affirmed that it found no illegal additives.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Twenty of Tainan’s Guanmiao noodle manufacturers, including Shan-chih, whose Guanmiao noodles exported to Singapore were said to be among the 11 products found to contain maleic acid and were asked to be removed from shelves, held a press conference yesterday, accompanied by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Mark Chen (陳唐山) and Greater Tainan City Councilor Wang Ding-yu (王定宇).
They accused the government of passivity and inaction in clearing the name of Guanmiao noodles.
“The noodles are all made according to the traditional process of mixing flour, water and salt, and drying the product in the sun,” one manufacturer said, emphasizing that starch is not used at all and that the noodles’ chewiness does not result from starch.
“Not only did the government fail to confirm with the Singaporean authority its testing results and methods, domestically it has also failed to clarify the issue and vindicate the Guanmiao noodle industry, which involves thousands of people’s livelihoods,” said Wang, who called for the government’s endorsement of the product.
Food and Drug Administration official Liu Fang-ming (劉芳銘) reaffirmed that the latest test results showed no evidence of industrial starch in the noodles and said the relevant authority is now trying to straighten out the matter by asking Singapore for further information.
Meanwhile, the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee has proposed to raise the penalty against those contravening the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) from between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000 (US$996 and US$4,979) to a maximum of NT$15 million.
Those who break the law by adding prohibited chemicals to food would be sentenced to two to seven years in jail, while causing corporal damage with banned chemicals would lead to seven to 10-year sentences, said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Su Ching-chuan (蘇清泉), the committee convener.
He added that the heaviest punishment would be a life sentence if the offense results in deaths.
Separately yesterday, Chen Tien-chueh (陳天爵), director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of International Information Service, said the ministry would schedule a meeting to brief the diplomatic corps to help them understand the situation.
Amid concerns that the food safety scandal has tarnished the nation’s reputation as a reliable and safe exporter of food, the ministry has come under criticism for failing to clear the name of Taiwanese food in the international market.
The Department of International Information Service was the target of criticism because it is in charge of handling international public relations.
Facing a string of media queries at a press briefing yesterday about how the food safety scandal has evolved in other countries, Chen could not answer any of them. He said Singapore was the only country that has raised concerns.
While Malaysia’s Ministry of Health has followed Singapore’s example and suspended imports of 11 Taiwanese starch-based products on Wednesday, Chen made no mention of it at the news briefing and could only confirm the news yesterday evening.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat