Consumer Group Urges Full Disclosure of Cooking Oil Contamination, Cites Systemic Flaws

(CNA) - The contamination of cooking oil with the carcinogen benzopyrene has raised food safety concerns, with the Consumers' Foundation of Taiwan (CF) stating today that the flow of the problematic oil has not been fully clarified. The foundation urged the government to conduct a thorough investigation and publicize the findings, and to establish a "public interest litigation" system to address existing loopholes.

An incident involving Zhonglian's "Soybean Cooking Oil" contaminated with the carcinogen benzopyrene, with 1,300 metric tons flowing to three major brands - Tai Shan, Fu Shou, and Fu Mao - has led to food safety concerns. However, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the Ministry of Health and Welfare has only recalled first-tier products. Second-tier products, which are foods made from the problematic oil as an ingredient and reprocessed, were deemed safe after evaluation and were not subject to a comprehensive recall or public announcement.

The CF issued a press release today, stating that this incident is not merely a simple food safety issue but also exposes significant flaws in Taiwan's food supply chain management and consumer relief systems. Especially when large quantities of problematic oil enter the commercial channels and are made into various meals for sale, consumers are ultimately unable to identify whether they have consumed them, let alone preserve evidence to assert their rights.

According to the information currently released by the CF, the problematic oil products include not only small household packages but also large containers of 18-liter and 18-kilogram sizes. These were mainly supplied to the catering industry, breakfast shops, fried chicken stalls, institutional catering, and food processing plants. The authorities are still tracing the flow of the oil and have not yet released a complete list of all businesses found to have used it nationwide.

The CF stated that unlike household oil, consumers eating out have no way of knowing which cooking oil a restaurant uses, let alone identifying the oil's batch number, nor will they retain any evidence proving they have consumed a specific oil. Once the problematic oil has been used, cooked, and consumed, even if it is later confirmed to have flowed into a certain restaurant, it is difficult to determine which consumers were affected, and even more difficult to establish a legal relationship between individual consumption and damages.

The CF pointed out that food safety incidents involve the public's right to health and the right to know. Government information disclosure should not be limited to raw material manufacturers and brand names. Instead, it should involve a complete investigation and public disclosure of all information regarding the flow of the 1,300 metric tons of problematic oil. A public platform should be established for consumers to search by store name, product name, or batch number to see if problematic oil was used, and the progress of the flow tracing should be updated daily to avoid fragmented information and prevent social panic and the spread of rumors.

The CF also mentioned that according to the Consumer Protection Act, if a consumer protection group wishes to file a class action lawsuit, it must first obtain the assignment of individual damage compensation claims from numerous consumers to the public interest group, which then represents the group in filing the lawsuit. The current incident involving commercial-use oil further highlights the importance of public interest litigation, and a "public interest litigation" system should be established to address loopholes.

The CF stated that this oil case was not discovered by the authorities proactively but was revealed after downstream businesses sent it for re-testing. While food safety management should require businesses to implement self-management, the government must not weaken its public authority because of this. The foundation called on the authorities to strengthen source sampling, increase the inspection frequency for high-risk products, and establish an inter-agency flow tracking and information disclosure system to prevent problematic raw materials from entering the market in large quantities before remedial actions are taken. (Editor: Li Heng-shan) 1150704

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