Cold-chain home delivery out of control; consumer protection office says operator has violated rules for years, meeting with all parties invited for tomorrow
Text by Kuo Hsiu-chen and Kung Te-lien
News & Market spent half a year investigating the four major low-temperature home delivery companies across Taiwan, and each operator turned in an ugly report card. In response, the Executive Yuan's Consumer Protection Committee will invite the Food Safety Office, the Food and Drug Administration under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Directorate General of Highways under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, experts and scholars, and logistics operators tomorrow to discuss how to improve the problem of temperature loss during delivery and how the competent authorities should strengthen oversight.
By contrast, the FDA, which is in charge of the Good Hygiene Practice (GHP) guidelines, has been very passive. It not only insists that the current regulations have no gaps, but also notes that in two past inspections by local health bureaus and the Consumer Protection Committee, violators were issued orders to make improvements within a deadline, and all eventually came into compliance.
Legislator Wu Kun-yu said, however, that the latest US Food Modernization Act requires that food transport conditions be determined by health risk assessments, and that a public hearing will be convened as soon as possible to discuss the matter.
Three companies promise improvements; Black Cat stresses everything complies with regulations
In response to the News & Market investigation, can the four major home delivery operators propose concrete improvement measures to win back consumer trust? Both Kerry TJ Logistics and Hsinchu Logistics said they will improve staffing and equipment in hopes of making changes. Taiwan Pelican Express, which produced the worst test results, reversed its earlier hardline stance and stressed that it will strengthen SOP workflows through education and training to ensure low-temperature quality meets legal standards. However, Black Cat Home Delivery stressed yesterday that both its equipment and staffing comply with regulations, and did not respond further to reporters' inquiries.
Regarding the test results, a Kerry TJ Logistics public relations representative stressed that education and training will continue, to prevent drivers from again removing the partition between chilled and frozen zones and compromising product storage; meanwhile, the public relations department of Hsinchu Logistics said it will conduct an internal review, including daily tracking reports, pre-cooling before departure, and temperature adjustment in different months under the current SOP, and will also continue to use education and training to ensure employees fully carry it out.
As for Taiwan Pelican Express, which at one point insisted that the temperature of the meat products "themselves" met legal requirements, after the full News & Market report was published it changed its tune, saying it will use the experimental data records as a reference for internal process review and retesting of various pieces of equipment, while strengthening SOP workflows through education and training to ensure low-temperature quality meets legal standards; staffing for delivery will also be reviewed and adjusted to provide a more suitable delivery environment.
Scholar says regulations need revision; FDA insists: no gaps in the law
After News & Market exposed the neglect of temperature control in low-temperature food home delivery, the Executive Yuan's Consumer Protection Committee was the first to speak out, saying it would hold a meeting to jointly find a solution. Deputy Director-General Wu Cheng-hsueh stressed that the committee's inspection of operators by stopping vehicles 2 years ago already found insufficient temperatures, and this year's inspections of consolidation stations plus this media investigation reached the same conclusion, showing that there has been no improvement over the years. Such a problem affects food safety, and the relevant agencies and operators need to jointly find a solution.
By contrast, the FDA, which is in charge of GHP, has been very passive. With temperature loss in home delivery occurring repeatedly, is there really no shortcoming on the part of the competent authority? Chang Cheng-ming, associate professor in the Department of Food Science at National Taiwan Ocean University, who was twice commissioned by the then Department of Health to revise regulations related to food logistics, pointed out that the current GHP's dedicated chapter on the logistics industry does not clearly enough set out requirements for low-temperature logistics and is out of step with the industry's current situation. Besides making inspections difficult for the competent authority, it makes it easy for logistics operators to escape responsibility for quality deterioration and safety risks caused by temperature loss.
But Pan Chih-kuan, director of the FDA's Food Division, stressed, "There is no problem with the current regulations." GHP clearly requires that during delivery, refrigerated compartments of logistics operators should be below 7°C and frozen ones below -18°C, to ensure food does not create food safety risks due to transport. If operators cannot comply, they should find ways to improve and formulate SOPs, such as not turning off the engine and speeding up unloading. If they think the current regulations are unworkable, they should present reasonable data for discussion.
Pan Hsi-wen, a section chief in the FDA's Food Division, noted that in two past inspections by local health bureaus and the Consumer Protection Committee, violators were issued orders to make improvements within a deadline, and all eventually came into compliance.
As for Chang Cheng-ming's point that the current regulations are vague, making it difficult to clarify responsibility when food produced by producers is damaged upon reaching the logistics end, Pan said firmly that there is no problem of responsibility being hard to clarify. If low-temperature food has problems, producers can assert their rights against the logistics operator and demand compensation.
Unfair contracts; Consumers' Foundation: FDA should establish contract rules
Facing the problem of unfair contracts among the four major home delivery companies that make it hard for consumers to claim compensation, Consumers' Foundation deputy chairman Yu Kai-hsiung said there is considerable room for discussion regarding the contracts, because current regulations do not specify in detail the "matters that should be recorded and must not be recorded in contracts," leaving consumers unable to seek compensation from logistics operators when faced with one-sided clauses such as "after the shipment is delivered to the recipient, the responsibility of this company (the carrier) is extinguished."
If it goes to civil litigation, the court can ultimately only refer to previous precedents; therefore Yu suggested that the competent authority, the FDA, establish regulations as soon as possible so consumers are not left at a loss.
In addition, Yu stressed that if problems occur in home delivery, they will send official letters demanding that logistics operators provide multiple indicators such as "delivery records, shipping process, temperature records and timetables," to understand whether the operator was negligent during delivery, so as to help consumers obtain reasonable compensation.
Regarding the low-temperature home delivery problems exposed this time, Wang Ting-yuan, head of HAPPY FRESH, said temperature loss will absolutely deal a heavy blow to small farmers and small e-commerce businesses like theirs. No matter how much effort upstream producers put into manufacturing and preserving products, improper delivery can cause products to spoil, and e-commerce businesses and consumers have few choices in delivery. Therefore, besides calling on the competent authority to revise regulations as soon as possible, he also hopes logistics operators will thoroughly comply and make changes, which in turn will influence systems such as traditional markets and large shopping malls with their own logistics systems, creating an environment friendly to both producers and consumers, which is the real way to solve the problem.