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MOHW to step up monitoring following tainted chili powder incident
Ministry of Health & Welfare Minister Hsueh Jui-yuan says his office is in the process of rolling out a list of high-risk imports that need to be monitored.
This, as the government takes steps to address the ongoing recalls of various food products that were contaminated by a chili powder imported from China that contains Sudan III dye. The health minister told lawmakers his office will be considering the frequency of regulation violations of a product and how much it could jeopardize the general population. Hsueh said if a product or its manufacturing origin fits the above-mentioned criteria, those products will be added to a list and would be "strictly monitored and controlled."
The health minister also defended his office's actions with regard to the import of chili powder from China which contains the banned industrial dye. Hsueh told lawmakers that even though problems surfaced last year with the imported materials, Taiwan officials cannot go to China and inspect suppliers there, which is why his office is planning to create a list based on the two new categories.
