Fail: Frozen food trucks in Taiwan

Posted on August 30, 2014 by Douglas Powell

The Consumer Protection Committee (CPC) under the Executive Yuan said yesterday that 73 percent of frozen food trucks failed to meet standards based on the result of random inspections of logistics companies.

This situation was first discovered in July, when the temperature in one frozen food truck reached 33 degrees Celsius, which is grossly in violation of food safety laws. Therefore, the CPC decided to cooperate with local health and transportation authorities to inspect additional logistics companies.

The CPC inspected 35 companies and 80 vehicles including 48 frozen food trucks. The results revealed 35 out of 48 frozen food trucks did not keep sufficiently low temperatures during transportation.

Some ready-to-eat foods fail second Taipei E. coli tests

Posted on August 11, 2014 by Douglas Powell

Ready-to-eat foods are a convenient choice for people, but four out of 100 products were found to contain excessive levels of Escherichia coli bacteria, even after a retest, the Taipei City Government’s Department of Health said yesterday.

Initial testing results showed that of the 100 ready-to-eat food products, ranging from pot-stewed snacks, cold sesame noodles and sandwiches to lunchboxes, hamburgers and rice rolls that the department purchased from convenience stores, street food stalls, hypermarkets and coffee shops in the city in May and June, 24 contained E. coli at levels exceeding the maximum permissible limit.

Taiwan woman infected by listeria had stillborn baby

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Douglas Powell

A woman in Greater Tainan gave birth to a stillborn baby after attending an outdoor wedding reception and became infected with Listeria monocytogenes.

National Cheng Kung University Hospital’s delivery room head doctor Hsu Pei-yang said the woman went to the hospital after having a persistent high fever.

Hsu said while the woman did not experience complications of sepsis due to the timely treatment she received, Listeria monocytogenes was detected in her blood and tissue cultures.

Food safety whistle-blowers to get part of the fine in Taiwan

Posted on December 16, 2013 by Douglas Powell

If Chapman could figure out a way to pay people, his #citizenfoodsafety would really take off.

In Taiwan, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is raising the reward for whistle-blowers and others who tip off the government to food safety violators, a day before a district court was set to hand down a verdict in an edible oil case that has shaken confidence in locally-produced food products.

FDA Deputy Director-General Chiang Yu-mei (姜郁美) said that newly amended FDA regulations will allow anyone providing tips that lead to the discovery of violations to receive a 5 percent to 10 per cent cut of the fine imposed on the offender. The previous regulations only offered 5 per cent.

Salmonella from food shopping on-line

Posted on December 15, 2013 by Douglas Powell

Do sandwiches and other food purchased via the Intertubes pose a unique food safety risk?

Researchers in Taiwan say, yes, in the current issue of Foodborne Pathogens and Disease.

Food sold over the Internet is an emerging business that also presents a concern with regard to food safety. A nationwide foodborne disease outbreak associated with sandwiches purchased from an online shop in July 2010 is reported. Consumers were telephone interviewed with a structured questionnaire and specimens were collected for etiological examination. A total of 886 consumers were successfully contacted and completed the questionnaires; 36.6% had become ill, with a median incubation period of 18 h (range, 6–66 h). The major symptoms included diarrhea (89.2%), abdominal pain (69.8%), fever (47.5%), headache (32.7%), and vomiting (17.3%). Microbiological laboratories isolated Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis, Salmonella Virchow, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli from the contaminated sandwiches, Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Virchow from the patients, and Salmonella Enteritidis and Staphylococcus aureus from food handlers. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis genotyping suggested a common origin of Salmonella bacteria recovered from the patients, food, and a food handler. Among the pathogens detected, the symptoms and incubation period indicated that Salmonella, likely of egg origin, was the probable causative agent of the outbreak. This outbreak illustrates the importance of meticulous hygiene practices during food preparation and temperature control during food shipment and the food safety challenges posed by online food–shopping services.

1000 workers suffer from food poisoning at Taiwanese show factory

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Douglas Powell

VietNamNet Bridge reports that nearly 1000 workers from a Taiwanese footwear company named HongFu in Thanh Hoa province were hospitalized on March 12 for food poisoning after having lunch at their factory.

The lunch for HongFu’s workers on March 12 included rice, chicken, vegetable and vegetable liquor. Workers said that the smell of the vegetable liquor was weird.

As the number of patients is huge, they were brought to many hospitals based in Thanh Hoa city. A hospital had to use their building that is still under construction to receive patients.

Le Thi Nhung, a worker at HongFu, said at 1 pm, after the lunch, a mass of workers said they had headache, vertigo and vomited. They received first aid at the company’s healthcare room but it was useless. The workers were then brought to hospitals.

By 4.30 pm, nearly 1000 workers were hospitalized while many workers continued to faint. All ambulances in Thanh Hoa province was mobilized to transport workers to hospitals.

Plan to reduce pig pollution by potty training

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Douglas Powell

Environmental authorities in Taiwan say they are planning to promote potty training for pigs to help curb water and waste pollution.

The Environmental Protection Administration made the pledge following the success of a pig farm in southern Taiwan, where the breeder started to potty-train his 10,000 pigs in late 2009, it said.

To keep his animals from defecating in nearby rivers, the breeder has established special "toilets" smeared with faeces and urine to attract the pigs, it said.

This reduced the amount of waste water by up to 80 per cent. As well as making the farm cleaner and less smelly, it also helped reduce illness among the pigs and boosted their fertility by 20 per cent, it added.

Taiwan has about six million pigs, most of them raised on farms in the centre and the south of the island.

Dried tofu in vacuum sacks suspected in Taiwan botulism cases

Posted on July 2, 2010 by Douglas Powell

Officials in Taiwan said today dried tofu in vacuum-sealed plastic sacks was suspected in a series of botulinum poisoning cases.

Taiwan has seen eight botulinum poisoning cases involving 11 people since April. One person was killed, five remain hospitalized and five others have been discharged from hospitals after treatment.

The Department of Health said three soybean product factories use a sterilized vacuum packaging process, and that only tofu products that are thoroughly sterilized before being vacuum-packed should be stored or displayed in room temperature environments.

Products from factories that do not properly sterilize their dried tofu should be refrigerated until eating, health officials said.

Cocaine found in Red Bull drinks

Posted on June 4, 2009 by Casey Jacob

Cases of Red Bull are being pulled from store shelves by officials in several countries due to the detection of cocaine in the products.

Trace amounts of the drug (0.4 micrograms per liter) were detected in Red Bull Cola by German authorities two weeks ago.

A few days later, Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment said that the cocaine level was too low to pose a health risk. However, bans on the drink were initiated in several German states due to concerns that their sale may violate narcotics laws.

When the Department of Health in Taiwan heard about the German’s discovery, they decided to test Red Bull Energy Drink—another product by the same manufacturer. They, too, found 0.4 micrograms of cocaine for each liter tested.

A statement made by the folks at Red Bull two days ago said,

"It would have been absolutely impossible for Asian (or any other) authorities to have found traces of cocaine in Red Bull Energy Drink. We believe that Asian authorities mistakenly applied concerns about Red Bull Simply Cola to Red Bull Energy Drink, a completely different product with an entirely different formula. Nevertheless, we had Red Bull Energy Drink product samples from Asia analyzed by an independent and accredited institute and confirmed that Red Bull Energy Drink does not contain any cocaine."

The same day, officials at the Centre for Food Safety in Hong Kong said a laboratory analysis found 0.1 and 0.3 micrograms of the illegal drug per liter in samples of Red Bull Sugar-free, as well as Red Bull Cola and Red Bull Energy Drink.

Are they lying, too, Red Bull?

The remainder of the statement by Red Bull said,

"A German authority had raised concerns regarding the use of de-cocainized coca leaf extract in Red Bull Simply Cola. …

"De-cocainized coca leaf extracts are used as flavoring in food products around the world and are considered to be safe. Indeed, in 21 C.FR. 182.20, the Food and Drug Administration regulations provide that it is acceptable and safe to use de-cocainized coca in food products in the United States."

Each country—and each consumer for that matter—is entitled to determine the level of risk that is acceptable to them. Food producers should respect that, and provide the information needed to make those determinations.

They should also provide sufficient data when calling anyone a liar. People who are already pulling products likely need more data than results of an undisclosed number of samples tested by a single, unnamed institute. Less arrogance is definitely in order.

Student dies during bun eating contest at Taiwan university

Posted on October 26, 2008 by Douglas Powell

A 23-year-old graduate student died after participating in a steamed bun eating competition at Dayeh University in Changhua.

The Taipei Times reports the student could not stop vomiting and fell unconscious after he began to feel uncomfortable during the school’s eating competition on Wednesday to determine who could finish two steamed buns stuffed with egg and cheese in the fastest time.

School medical personnel immediately performed CPR on the student and an ambulance was called which rushed him to a nearby hospital, but the student was pronounced dead. The cause of death remains unclear, but doctors said that the student may have choked to death

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