TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — DPP Legislator Lin Chu-yin (林楚茵) criticized KMT Chair Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) on Thursday after Cheng claimed Ting Hsin International's tainted oil from the 2014 food safety scandal was safer than oil involved in the ongoing Central Union Oil Corp. contamination case.
Cheng said Thursday that Ting Hsin's oil, though made from illegally sourced ingredients, was safer than oil contaminated with the carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), per Tai Sounds. She argued that former President Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) administration strengthened food safety regulations following the Ting Hsin scandal and suggested the current controversy reflects the DPP government's failure to enforce those laws.
The DPP rejected Cheng's remarks, noting that she had previously praised prosecutors for investigating the illegal blending of recycled cooking oil with fresh cooking oil in the Ting Hsin case, per ETtoday. Lin added that some of Ting Hsin's products were made with oil contaminated by heavy metals and that subsequent testing found heavy metal levels exceeding legal limits, per Z.Media.
KMT Culture and Communications Committee Chair Chen I-hsin (陳以信) defended Cheng's remarks, per Tai Sounds. Citing court rulings in the Ting Hsin case, Chen said Cheng's point was that if products made from tainted ingredients passed safety inspections but still could not be considered safe for consumption, then the current case involving BaP contamination was even more serious.
Chen also noted that the health minister resigned and the Food and Drug Administration director was reassigned under the Ma administration following the Ting Hsin scandal, while no comparable personnel changes have occurred under President Lai Ching-te's (賴清德) administration.
The Ting Hsin scandal involved the use of recycled oil to produce lard and imported recycled animal feed oil to manufacture cooking oil. Ting Hsin's lard products passed government safety inspections despite the use of tainted ingredients, per AgriJourney News.
Food safety experts at the time said manufacturers could tailor products to meet testing requirements because they understood the government's inspection methods. Subsequent testing found heavy metal concentrations in oil sampled directly from Ting Hsin's facilities exceeded Taiwan's legal limits, per AgriJourney News.
In response to the Ting Hsin scandal, Taiwan established a three-tier food safety inspection system to address limited government inspection capacity. The system combines government inspections with mandatory self-monitoring by manufacturers and third-party certification.
However, industry sources told Tai Sounds the Central Union Oil case may indicate that conflicts of interest that contributed to the Ting Hsin scandal remain unresolved. The sources said the government contracted the Taiwan Food Technologists Association to conduct third-party certification even though the association's chair also serves as Central Union Oil's food safety adviser.
The sources said Central Union Oil received official certification in March, while two of its three shareholders received certification in May and June, even though the company had already been notified of abnormalities in its salad oil testing and did not report them to authorities until late June. They argued that unless the roles of certification, consulting, and regulatory oversight are clearly separated, similar scandals could occur again.
Health Minister Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) responded to the report by saying the government bears ultimate responsibility for oversight but relies on outside experts to provide technical expertise, per Tai Sounds.
