Delayed Reporting of Problematic Oil Products; Shih Chung-liang: Establish Direct Communication Mechanism for Inspection Agencies

(Central News Agency, reporter Tseng Yi-ning, Taipei, August 8) The Zhonglian oil product benzene pyrene exceeding the standard storm has been exposed, and it was found that reporting was delayed with three downstream companies. Cross-party legislators are concerned today about whether self-testing by businesses can be effectively managed. Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang stated that a direct communication mechanism will be established between third-party inspection agencies and the competent authorities.

The Legislative Yuan's Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee today invited Shih Chung-liang, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs to deliver a special report on "Food Safety Issues Continue to Erupt, How to Build a Safe Living and Educational Environment for the People and Improve Food Factory Safety Management" and to be questioned.

DPP legislator Lin Shu-fen questioned, "The current food safety reporting mechanism relies on the conscience of businesses, but conscience is precisely what businesses lack the most." Even if third-party laboratories detect that harmful substances exceed the standard, the competent authorities are unaware and still rely on businesses to report themselves. She believes that a mechanism should be established for third-party laboratories to proactively report to the competent authorities.

Lin Shu-fen pointed out that companies such as Zhonglian, Tai Shan, Fu Shou, and Fu Mao have equity interest relationships, and downstream companies are shareholders of upstream companies. She questioned whether the original self-management method "is still feasible?" Moreover, the domestic oil product market is severely oligopolistic, with only two major manufacturers, Zhonglian and Ta-Tung-Yi. The capital overlap is highly concentrated, and Ta-Tung-Yi also has a similar interest structure. If something goes wrong, "downstream will not be innocent victims."

KMT legislator Chiu Chen-chun also expressed concern that Ta-Tung-Yi has a market share of 30% to 45% and should not be deemed problem-free when there is uncertainty about risks. However, under the current self-testing mechanism, if an exceedance is found, businesses can choose not to report proactively, and only resubmit for testing or comply with inspections after adjusting their production processes and lowering the data.

In response, Shih Chung-liang stated that in the future, it will be required that a report be provided to the competent authorities simultaneously after external testing. In addition, in addition to strengthening the frequency and links of self-inspection, sampling by the competent authorities at the source will also be strengthened. Therefore, the self-testing samples left by Zhonglian between April and June 30 are currently being re-examined.

DPP legislator Huang Hsiu-fang also expressed concern that in the past, there was trust in businesses' self-management, but now self-inspection has caused problems. Although businesses are now required to inspect batch by batch after this incident, attention still needs to be paid to how businesses provide reports to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Shih Chung-liang said that in this incident, after the third-party inspection agency detected abnormalities and provided the report to the business, the business delayed reporting. Therefore, it is being studied to establish direct communication and reporting of abnormalities between third-party inspection agencies and central or local competent authorities, hoping to directly connect the information flow of third-party inspection agencies with local competent authorities. Paper reporting will be required first in the near future, and then system reporting will be implemented in the future. (Editor: Su Lung-chi) 1150708

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