Vice Premier Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) on Friday said the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) should complete its inspection and testing of ingredients and food products containing Sudan III, an industrial dye banned in food in Taiwan, in a week and tainted products should be removed from shelves by the end of the month.
Since a food company in Yunlin County was reported to have used chili powder containing the potential carcinogenic Sudan III in late January, 22 batches of imported chili pepper — 21 batches from China and one from Vietnam — have been found to contain the dye and dozens of food products have been removed from shelves as of Thursday.
After an interministerial meeting on Friday, Cheng said he has asked the MOHW to complete its inspection and testing on the batches of identified food products that have used Sudan III-tainted ingredients within a week.
Photo: Chang Tsung-chiu, Taipei Times
The products that are found to contain the dye should be removed from shelves by the end of the month, Cheng added.
The Cabinet in a news release said the meeting concluded that following the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) publicizing the tainted batches of chili powder on its Web site, it would request local governments to supervise food companies and restaurants known to have used the chili powder to test their food products and report the results.
Local governments are also asked to not only remove the tainted chili powder, but also food products that have used the illegal powder, it said.
The Ministry of Education has requested local governments to order schools to suspend the use of chili pepper and curry powder in school lunches, and it would respect local governments’ ban on other related items, it said.
The Cabinet said it has requested the MOHW to establish a more effective real-time food-safety case reporting and sharing mechanism to update local health departments accurately so that they can respond promptly.
It also requested the MOHW to expand testing capacity by increasing the number of facilities and workforce.
Cheng expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Justice for initiating a communication platform to coordinate the crackdown on criminal activities related to food safety.
Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) on Friday said he instructed the High Prosecutors’ Office to request all district prosecutors’ offices to adopt stricter principles in investigating relevant cases and asked the Administrative Enforcement Agency to work closely with local health departments so that fines are collected promptly.
Separately, the Tainan City Government yesterday said it would launch a “Sudan III-free label” for import companies to place on products that have passed batch-by-batch border inspections so that restaurants and retailers can use a sign stating: “This store does not use Sudan III-tainted spices.”
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