中秋节前台湾卷入地沟油丑闻
台湾当局正在竭力遏制一起食用油污染丑闻。该丑闻影响到了数百家生产厂商,并引发了外界对许多常见食品的健康风险的担忧。
发生在中秋节期间的这起丑闻浇灭了人们对馈赠和食用月饼这种季节性传统小吃的热情。
监管机构正在调查涉事的劣质食用油销往香港、澳门和中国大陆的规模。根据香港食物安全中心的新闻公报,香港知名零售商美心西饼已将采用购自台湾一家厂商的劣质油制成的凤梨酥下架。
9月1日,台湾警方突击搜查了南部的一家工厂。该工厂被指生产了数百吨从餐厅废弃物和屠宰场副产品中回收得来的油。另一家公司强冠购进这种被污染的原材料,并将其再加工成782吨食用油。台湾福利服务部食品药物管理署的官员于周六表示,其中的645吨被广泛销往台湾各地区,迄今为止已召回了236吨。他们承认,部分未被召回的油可能已经被用掉了。
近年来,非法再加工食用油已成为中国的一个严重的食品安全问题。在那里,这种油被通俗地称作“地沟油”。这种物质颇为危险,不仅因为非法回收操作过程中卫生状况堪忧,还因为重复利用的油可能含有苯并芘和黄曲霉毒素等致癌物质。
截至目前,尚未发现与台湾劣质油丑闻相关的病例。台湾食品药物管理署署长叶明功周六表示,无足够证据显示误食劣质油会伤害人体,但面对台湾消费者提出的他们在淡化风险的指责,当局承诺会进行进一步检验。
台湾行政院院长江宜桦呼吁,商店里所有已知的采用问题食油制作的产品在周日前必须下架。食品药物管理署前一天称,大约有167吨食物已被召回,其中包括方便面、饼干和饺子。
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Taiwan Reels From Gutter Oil Scandal
The authorities in Taiwan are scrambling to control a tainted-cooking-oil scandal that has affected hundreds of manufacturers and raised fears about health risks posed in many commonly consumed food items.
The scandal comes during the Mid-Autumn Festival and has dampened enthusiasm for giving and consuming mooncakes, a traditional seasonal snack.
Regulators are examining the extent to which the substandard oil has been exported to Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China. Hong Kong’s Center for Food Safety said Maxim’s Cakes, a prominent retailer in the Chinese city, had removed from its shelves pineapple cakes made from oil from a Taiwan manufacturer implicated in the scandal.
On Sept. 1 the police raided a factory in southern Taiwan that is accused of producing hundreds of tons of oil that had been recycled from restaurant waste and slaughterhouse byproducts. Another company, Chang Guann, bought and reprocessed the tainted material into 782 tons of oil. Of that, 645 tons of oil were sold widely around Taiwan, with 236 tons recovered thus far, officials from the Taiwanese Food and Drug Administration said Saturday. Some of the unrecovered oil may have already been consumed, they acknowledged.
In recent years illegally recycled oil has emerged as a serious food safety concern in China, wher it is known colloquially as “gutter oil.” The substance is dangerous not just because of poor sanitation associated with illegal recycling operations, but because reused oil can contain carcinogens such as benzopyrene and aflatoxin.
So far no cases of illness have been associated with the recycled oil scandal in Taiwan. Yeh Ming-kung, the director of the Food and Drug Administration, said Saturday that there was no immediate health risk from the oil, but the authorities have promised further testing amid criticism from consumers in Taiwan that they are playing down the threat.
Prime Minister Jiang Yi-huah of Taiwan had called for all products known to be made with the tainted oil to be removed from store shelves by Sunday. A day earlier the Food and Drug Administration said about 167 tons of food items had been recovered, including instant noodles, cookies and dumplings.
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