Taipei City Food Safety Committee holds its first meeting; Kao Chih-ming: Having to rely on testing to eat is a tragedy for humanity

The first meeting of the "Food Safety Committee," led personally by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, was convened this morning, with experts from a range of different fields taking part. After the meeting, Kao Chih-ming, general manager of I-Mei Foods, spoke on behalf of the participants. He noted that in the future the Taipei City Government will focus on education, guidance and assistance for manufacturers, rather than relying on testing and severe punishments to solve food safety problems. "If we can only eat something after it has been tested, that is a tragedy for humankind."

During the meeting, several food safety topics were discussed, including the recycling of waste cooking oil and a draft plan for the school lunch supply process. Huang Shih-chieh, director-general of the Taipei City Government Department of Health, said that today's session was only to discuss the general direction, and that details would be discussed in the future.

Kao Chih-ming pointed out that current food testing emphasizes that "this test report is only responsible for the sample," or that "although the test result is qualified, it is not necessarily legal." "This is very strange," he said, suggesting that eating seasonal fruits and vegetables according to the season is safer, rather than relying on testing for every bite. The Taipei City Government will also start with the city's micro vendors, small restaurants and food businesses, and then pair this with traceability and punishment systems.

"Severe punishments will not solve the problem," Kao Chih-ming said. He opposed "racing" with other counties and cities, for example following Taipei's lead whenever Kaohsiung imposes a fine of a certain percentage, because Taipei has nearly 30,000 food and beverage businesses to manage, but more than 300,000 employees, "and they are also consumers and citizens. We need to propose more effective methods."

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