Taoyuan DPP caucus criticizes mayor's inconsistent food safety statements, sparking public doubt

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus in the Taoyuan City Council has accused Mayor Chang San-cheng's administration of making contradictory statements regarding food safety, causing public unease. The criticism stems from the city's handling of an incident where soybean salad oil from Chung Lien Oil was found to exceed limits for benzopyrene.

The DPP caucus, supporting mayoral candidate Huang Shih-chieh, stated that the city government initially claimed Taoyuan's school lunches were unaffected without a thorough investigation. After Huang pointed out discrepancies, the administration, including Information Bureau Chief Luo Chu-tung and the KMT caucus, allegedly engaged in "smear tactics" rather than providing clear answers.

"Mayor Chang, stop letting your subordinates engage in political attacks and quickly investigate whether any citizens are still suffering," the caucus urged. They highlighted that Chang's office initially stated on July 2 that 16 catering companies and ingredient suppliers did not use the affected oil batch, but on July 7, he admitted 13 schools were impacted. Furthermore, from July 2 to July 6, the city's "Taoyuan Food Safety Information Platform" reportedly did not publish daily inspection or recall data for the problematic oil.

The caucus criticized the city government for evading Huang's requests for detailed checks and instead accusing him of "whitewashing for the central government." They further alleged that after the Health Bureau contradicted Luo Chu-tung's initial statements, the KMT caucus was brought in to "wash it clean again." The DPP emphasized that central and local governments should cooperate to protect children's meals rather than resorting to election-related political maneuvering and ignoring public dissatisfaction over governance failures.

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Mayor Chang, stop letting your subordinates engage in political attacks and quickly investigate whether any citizens are still suffering, don't let Taoyuan people live in the unknown and fear.