Chiang Wan-an Calls for Protests Over Food Safety; KMT Lawmakers Propose Cutting FDA Budget

Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an has rallied citizens to take to the streets, protesting what he calls being "forced to eat toxic oil." His call to action comes amid a widening food safety scandal involving contaminated oil that has swept across Taiwan.

The opposition Kuomintang (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has responded by proposing a significant budget cut for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The caucus seeks to eliminate operational expenses for the agency from August to December, totaling 218,000 New Taiwan dollars. They argue that the government's response to a series of food safety incidents, including substandard olive oil and carcinogenic substances found in cooking oil, has been marked by indecisiveness, negligence, and dereliction of duty.

The KMT caucus's proposal specifically targets the FDA's "basic administrative work maintenance" budget. They contend that an earlier incident involving substandard olive oil in January should have served as a warning about potential carcinogens like benzopyrene. The party believes that more proactive inspections of domestic oil processors at that time could have prevented the widespread contamination that later emerged in July. The ongoing scandal, they argue, exposes critical flaws in Taiwan's food safety notification, traceability, product recall, and risk management systems.

Further fueling the KMT's criticism is the government's initial decision not to release a list of contaminated products, a move that was only reversed after public outcry. The caucus also points to the government's inconsistent policy of only recalling products with over 20% contaminated oil, rather than a complete recall. This wavering approach, they claim, has complicated identification for consumers and overwhelmed frontline health inspectors, significantly slowing down recall efforts. The KMT insists that the government must acknowledge its systemic failures and policy errors rather than solely blaming businesses.

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forced to eat toxic oil, forced to take to the streets