Concerns over cooking oil safety prompt lawmakers to amend the law, but can you feel reassured? 1017 statement

[1017 Homemakers United Foundation Environmental Protection Foundation Statement]

Uneasy About Oil? Are You Reassured by Legislators Amending the Law?

2014.10.17

One food safety storm after another has pushed the whole nation to the limit of tolerance for these days of food insecurity! The lives and health of all citizens are under serious threat, and even our most basic right to eat is being trampled! As parents, teachers and consumers, we have a responsibility to leave the next generation of children, and ourselves, an environment where we can truly eat with peace of mind, rather than a collapsed "fake gourmet kingdom." We believe the food safety problem lies not only in unscrupulous businessmen, but in the fundamental rot of the entire food safety rule of law and management system. Therefore, in addition to strictly pursuing and severely punishing black-hearted enterprises to prevent them from offending again, the government must also carry out airtight and effective inspections, so as to end at the source any element that should not enter the food chain. Moreover, we must rebuild a complete and sound food safety legal system, establish an independent food safety committee, staff a food safety inspection police force, and promote basic public education on diet, so as to prevent the government from turning when it encounters conglomerates and enterprises, and putting people's health and safety behind its head. To build an effective legal system, we call on all citizens to jointly monitor legislators from both the ruling and opposition parties, and during this session, based on strong public opinion, complete the amendment of the Food Safety Act as soon as possible, and pass important resolutions, so that people can live in Taiwan eating with peace of mind and children can eat healthily and grow up smoothly. On October 17, 2014, the Legislative Yuan's Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee worked through the night and passed requirements that food factories must use electronic invoices to facilitate food traceability, that operators must set up factories with "separate plants and separate licenses" to avoid mixed use of feed oil, and included the "I-Mei clause" to force food operators to set up laboratories for self-inspection. It is about to be sent to the plenary session for negotiation. These are only a small step in the huge project of rebuilding food safety in Taiwan. Not only must they not be distorted or compromised during the process of being sent to the plenary session for negotiation for the benefit of a few, but we must also use this as a starting point to formulate longer-term and more comprehensive food safety policies, rather than stopping here. The Homemakers United Foundation Environmental Protection Foundation hereby puts forward four major categories and 9 demands, from urgent regulatory revisions to thorough reform of the food safety system. We need your support and your joint effort to urge the subsequent legislative work! We also hope to break the ice, so that Taiwan's civil society can generate more viewpoints and opportunities for rebuilding the food safety system. 1. Amendments to the Existing Food Safety Act

1. Establish food safety police: Solve the dilemma that food safety front-line workers have neither manpower nor investigative power, strengthen food inspection and border management, and precisely strike black-hearted businessmen.
2. Require listed/OTC food operators to set up their own laboratories for gatekeeping: Many large manufacturers failed during the food safety storms because they lacked independent testing capacity, so that when an upstream problem occurred, downstream products collapsed across the board. The law should be amended as soon as possible to require listed/OTC operators to establish food testing laboratories to build source management, shoulder corporate social responsibility, and conduct independent gatekeeping.
3. Protect "public-interest whistleblowers": Formulate whistleblower protection clauses in the Food Safety Act as soon as possible. In addition to Article 50 of the Food Safety Act, measures such as anonymity should be strengthened to ensure the personal safety and rights of internal corporate whistleblowers.
4. Increase penalties for adulteration and counterfeiting: With respect to Article 49 of the Food Safety Act, the sentence for adulteration and counterfeiting should be raised to not less than 1 year and not more than 7 years.
5. Recover illegal profits from black-hearted manufacturers: Amend Article 44, Paragraph 2 of the Food Safety Act as soon as possible to clearly distinguish administrative fines from the recovery of illegal profits, thoroughly recover illegal profits, and prevent black-hearted manufacturers from escaping through "no double punishment for one offense."

2. Thoroughly Reform Food Safety

6. Accelerate the rebuilding of the food safety system: Establish an independent food safety committee, and formulate a basic food safety act as soon as possible, to take dedicated charge of the nationwide food safety defense line.
7. Comprehensively promote and implement dietary education, and complete amendments to the School Health Act and the National Nutrition Act as soon as possible: Let children better understand the importance of real food through school and community education.

3. Relevant Laws of the Council of Agriculture

8. Pass the [Feed Management Act] within a deadline: The Feed Management Act must be legislated during this year's Legislative Yuan session, thoroughly implementing source management and prohibiting genetically modified feed, feed oil and heavy metals from entering. End the chaos of animals eating toxic feed and then entering our food chain.

4. The Legislative Yuan Plenary Session Should Resolve as Soon as Possible 9. The Legislative Yuan should pass a punitive resolution: Passed by the plenary session, any enterprise that violates the Food Safety Act should never be included in campus group meal and government agency procurement lists. For a detailed explanation of the key points of the amendment, please click this link!! The Homemakers United Foundation Environmental Protection Foundation, which began 28 years ago with a group of mothers concerned about the environment and food safety, now invites you to care together about the issue of food safety justice in Taiwan. In this era of collapsing food safety, we need your support to urge our legislators and administrative departments to shoulder their due responsibilities as soon as possible!