NTU professor issues appeal to President Chain Store 7-ELEVEN
Experts call on Uni-President to shoulder its corporate social responsibility
The Uni-President 7-Eleven O-Bento, which stresses that it selects its ingredients with rigor, was recently called out in an article on the News & Market website for using tofu made from genetically modified soybeans, and for labeling this only in tiny print on the bottom of the box, so that by the time you see it, the food is already in your stomach.
Although Uni-President 7-Eleven stresses that it buys from the well-known domestic brand Chunghua Tofu, experts and scholars including Guo Hwa-jen, professor in the Department of Agronomy at National Taiwan University, and Chou Kuei-tien, professor at National Taiwan University's Graduate Institute of National Development, have publicly called on Uni-President 7-Eleven, saying that the risks of GM foods are unclear, that companies should fulfill their corporate social responsibility, and that it should take the lead in switching to non-GM soybeans so that the public can eat more healthily.
Chou Kuei-tien, professor at National Taiwan University's Graduate Institute of National Development: Food ingredient management should have a "unified" standard
O-Bento touts health claims such as "no added preservatives," and "Golden Soy Milk" from Uni-President Enterprises, the parent company of Uni-President 7-Eleven, clearly states "non-genetically modified soybeans" on its packaging, yet O-Bento uses GM soybeans as an ingredient, leaving consumers who trust Uni-President Enterprises' food quality feeling deeply let down. Chou Kuei-tien, a professor at National Taiwan University's Graduate Institute of National Development who specializes in genetic technology and social risk, said: "This incident highlights that Uni-President Enterprises as a whole is out of sync."
Chou Kuei-tien pointed out that the risks of genetic modification are still unclear, but Uni-President Enterprises is a major company in Taiwan, and since it emphasizes healthy ingredients and has also developed soy milk from non-GM soybeans, it should be consistent. "If consumers have doubts, it should try to avoid using it, so that consumers have confidence." He said bluntly that Uni-President Enterprises makes so much profit in Taiwan that it should shoulder its corporate social responsibility, and corporate social responsibility is not just about participating in charity or holding arts and cultural events; it should listen to consumers' concerns and put consumers at ease.
Uni-President Enterprises responded that O-Bento currently uses Chunghua Tofu, a well-known domestic brand available in all major retail channels, and that "we are also using it legally." As for whether it will switch to non-GM soybeans in the future, the company said it still needs further internal assessment.
