Taiwan

Mainland, Taiwan to upgrade efforts on food safety

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-06-16 16:01

Dadeng Market in Xiamen is a franchised Taiwan products trade center.

After the food safety scandal, the quality control authorities in Xiamen suspended trading of five categories of Taiwan food and beverage in the market for further inspection.

"For the first time since I started the business of food trading a decade ago, I realized that this sector is really fragile as a reputation crisis might lead to the bankruptcy of a company," said Wu Chao, general manager of Xiamen-based Gaoyi Trade Company, which is the general agent to Taiwan A-Sali branded food products.

The Chinese mainland is not immune to food safety problems, either.

Melamine-contaminated milk powder by a Hebei-based dairy maker killed at least six children and sickened about 300,000 others in 2008, and sporadic food safety scandals have been a public concern.

While addressing the cross-Strait forum, vice chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party Tseng Yung-chuan said the DEHP scandal had triggered the alarm on food safety, and Taiwan authorities would strike hard on unscrupulous food producers.

Wang Yi, director of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, told the forum that the mainland and Taiwan are fortifying coordination and cooperation in the field of food safety so as to crack down on illegal food production.

In November 2008, the mainland and Taiwan signed an agreement on cross-Strait food safety cooperation, under which the two sides agreed to share information and build up a coordination mechanism on food safety issues.

Tian Shihong, director of the quality control department of AQSIQ, proposed at the forum that the mainland should work on a credit mechanism that would include a blacklist to expose and punish those wrongdoers.