Cumulative downstream food products from problem oils: FDA says 259 items for Cheng I, 83 items for Ting Hsin

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced yesterday evening the list of downstream food products processed with problem oils from Cheng I and Ting Hsin, as reported by the health bureaus of each county and city. As of 17:00, the number of downstream food products processed with Cheng I problem lard had reached 259 items, while downstream food products made with Ting Hsin problem lard totaled 83 items.

Among the downstream food products processed with Cheng I problem lard, one more item was added compared with the morning: "seaweed chicken meat floss" produced by Charoen Pokphand Enterprise (CP Group) in Nantou County. As for downstream food products using Ting Hsin problem lard, 15 more items were added compared with the morning, mainly "original flavor meat floss" and "seaweed sesame meat floss" produced by the Yilan Distillery of Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation, as well as 13 products including various meat sauces, white sauces and curry sauces produced by Guanjue Foods in Hsinchu County.

Acting Director-General of the FDA Chiang Yu-mei stated that manufacturers using any of the 54 problem lard products from Ting Hsin Oil as raw materials for food processing must voluntarily remove them from shelves before midnight today and report the names and quantities of the removed products to their local health bureau, otherwise they will be penalized under Article 44 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation.

FDA: Strengthen source management of oils, tighten border controls on upstream and downstream

Chiang Yu-mei stated that in order to strengthen source management of oils, the FDA, based on the principle of risk assessment, has established tightened border control measures. The current border control measures for imported oils and fats include:

1. Lard imported from Hong Kong, China: applications for inspection are suspended; 2. Animal fats and oils imported from Vietnam: applications for inspection are suspended; 3. Edible oils imported from Hong Kong, China, mainland China and Macao, China: batch-by-batch inspection is adopted, and official sanitary certificates must be attached; 4. Other edible oils imported from Vietnam: batch-by-batch inspection is adopted, and official sanitary certificates must be attached; 5. For imported non-edible oils: the import declaration must be marked with the words "not for food use"; 6. Inspection of other imported animal fats and oils is strengthened, with a sampling rate of 20%.

In addition, Chiang Yu-mei said that in order to strengthen our country's oil import management mechanism, a diversion management system for imports will be adopted: each competent authority responsible for the use of oils and fats will propose import regulations, which will be announced by the Bureau of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Economic Affairs as composite import regulations; separately, the Customs Administration of the Ministry of Finance will announce that the use of imported oils and fats must be stated on the import declaration. In the future, imported oils and fats will be managed by the competent authority responsible for their use according to that use.

She gave an example: if for food use, an import registration and permit must be applied for from the FDA of the Ministry of Health and Welfare; if for feed use, it must be applied for from the Council of Agriculture; if for industrial use, it must be declared to the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Chiang Yu-mei further stated that in the future, bulk and unpackaged oil imports will be required to attach official certificates from the exporting country. When applying to the FDA for import inspection, the FDA will verify the authenticity of the documents, and if there are doubts, it will immediately verify the legality of the factory and documents with the exporting country's authorities through our overseas offices. In addition, the FDA will carry out overseas inspections when necessary, or require importers to conduct overseas inspections on their own.

Appendix: List of Cheng I and Ting Hsin downstream businesses/products

• Attachment 1-1031014 List of oil products voluntarily removed from shelves by Cheng I downstream businesses

• Attachment 2-1031014 List of products voluntarily removed from shelves by Cheng I downstream businesses

• Attachment 3-1031014 List of problem products from downstream businesses of Ting Hsin Vietnamese lard