Oil Carcinogen Levels Exceeded; Taichung City Government Has Inspected 677 Businesses, No New Items Added

(Central News Agency, Reporter Hao Xueqing, Taichung, July 7) Taichung City Government announced today that after the soybean salad oil from Chung Lien Oil was found to have exceeded the limit for "benzopyrene," a total of 677 businesses have been inspected, with no new problematic oil batch numbers or items identified. The city will continue to track the flow and recovery of the affected oil.

Regarding the incident of excessive "benzopyrene" in Chung Lien Oil's soybean salad oil, Mayor Lu Shiow-yen announced this morning that according to the city government's investigation, Chung Lien, Formosa, and Fu Shou, three companies, successively became aware of the potential food safety risks associated with the oil but failed to report to the competent authorities immediately as required. This violates relevant provisions of the "Food Safety and Sanitation Management Act." The city government has imposed heavy fines on the three companies, with individual penalties up to NT$3 million.

The Taichung City Department of Health and Welfare explained that the city government has activated a cross-departmental inspection mechanism. As of today, a total of 677 inspections have been conducted at markets, hypermarkets, night markets, and food businesses, with no new problematic oil batch numbers or items found.

Among these, the Department of Economic Development inspected 74 locations including public markets, night markets, and hypermarkets, covering 606 businesses. Three batches of problematic oil have been removed from shelves. Additionally, 101 businesses have preemptively removed same-item but different-batch products from shelves and are continuing to track their flow and recovery. Meanwhile, businesses are being guided to proactively post "peace of mind" announcements to enhance consumer information transparency.

The Department of Education stated that inspections of 15 catering businesses, 6 schools, and 127 kindergartens have been completed, confirming that affected batches of oil have been removed or discontinued.

The Department of Social Affairs pointed out that a comprehensive review of 860 food service units has been completed, including community care centers, infant and toddler care centers, institutions, youth centers, homeless shelters, and meal delivery services. Among these, 14 community care centers and 1 meal delivery service unit had used the problematic oil, and this number has increased. Additionally, 3 private infant and toddler care centers and 6 institutions have completely stopped using the relevant oil. (Editor: Chen Renhua) 1150707

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