Daily Lessons from Life 01 June 2013 - Taiwan passes tougher food safety law

"Taiwan passes tougher food safety law - AFP 01 June 2013 TAIPEI: Taiwan has revised a food safety law to toughen punishment for lacing food items with banned chemicals, the government said Saturday, after the latest tainted food scandal on the island. A new clause imposing the maximum life imprisonment and a fine of up to Tw$20 million ($666,000) has been added if such an offense results in death, the health department said. Under the revisions passed by parliament late Friday, the fine has been raised to up to Tw$15 million for using toxic or expired ingredients and up to Tw$3 million for using an unapproved amount of food additives. The tougher law comes as Taiwan battles its latest food scare after a banned industrial chemical was found in powered starch used to make a variety of snacks and desserts last month. The affected products include flat rice noodles, rice cakes, tofu puddings, dumplings, and tapioca balls used to make Taiwan's popular "pearl" bubble tea. Several large food companies have recently recalled some products suspected of containing either the chemical maleic anhydride, an industrial preservative or expired ingredients. Taiwanese doctors have cautioned that consuming too much maleic anhydride, which is used to make food chewy, can lead to kidney failure. In 2011, Taiwan launched a massive recall of sports drinks and juices after some products were found to be tainted with a banned chemical in its worst food scandal in decades. Several countries at the time had banned imports of certain food items from Taiwan containing the DEHP, a chemical used to make plastics, that experts say can cause hormone problems in children." First the scandals came from Mainland China. Now, Taiwan. Is it true that some Chinese merchants and business people SIMPLY have no conscience or just plain STUPID as they cannot distinguish between 'poisons' and 'food ingredients'? Lessons for me are: 1. this is NOT a cultural dependent behaviors since we have, to a lesser degree of negative effect to human being who might have consumed 'horse meats' as 'beef', such unethical behaviours in the West as well. Just that putting harmful chemical into consummable products seem particularly 'usual' in China and Taiwan?; 2. this type of unethical and reckless behaviours are driven primarily by GREED. And maybe by the facts that some of them had calculated the risks of being found out are low and the price they have to paid far outweight the benefits that they can reap if they succeed in escaping detections!! So, this increasing the punitive consequences is a good move. In this situation, one needs to 'fight fire with fire'; 3. it is a bit worrying such malpractice can happen in a country (or 'territory' depending on if you are PRC or ROC folks) where the people's level of social consciousness and attention to healthy foods and living is very high like Taiwan. Just imaging what could be happening in mainland China IF the merchants and business people CONTINUE to practice such unsafe processes. There is NO WAY the enforcement agencies and staffs can flush out every culprit given the number and size of China. The ULTIMATE defense has to be: Individual integrity. One will NOT add anything that one is NOT sure will be harmful no matter how profitable it may be. Tough to do and yet must be done if one wants to have real peace of mine. Good things come from being committed to good values and NOT from forced compliance!