Want China Times, CNA 2014-09-14
Taiwan's premier Jiang Yi-huah said Saturday that Health and Welfare minister Chiu Wen-ta has expressed his willingness to take responsibility for a snowballing food safety scandal but that now was not the time to discuss personnel changes.
Health and Welfare minister Chiu Wen-ta during a press conference, Sept. 5. (File photo/CNA) |
Taiwan's premier Jiang Yi-huah said Saturday that Health and Welfare minister Chiu Wen-ta has expressed his willingness to take responsibility for a snowballing food safety scandal but that now was not the time to discuss personnel changes.
Jiang said
during a visit to Pingtung county that Chiu told him he wanted to apologize to
the public and was willing to take any responsibility he had to assume for the
scandal, which involves cooking oil made from questionable ingredients getting
into the food chain.
With food
safety concerns yet to subside, Jiang said it was not the right time to talk
about adjustments to personnel involved in food safety.
Jiang said
the most important task at present was to pull products containing substandard
oils made by oil supplier Chang Guann from store shelves.
Carrying
out reforms on related systems and assessing who should be held responsible for
the incident will be left to the next phase of the process, he said.
Chang
Guann, the company at the heart of the oil scandal, was found to be producing
lard-based cooking oils made with putrid kitchen waste and industrial waste
by-products or lard for use in animal feed imported from Hong Kong.
Chang Guann
chairman Yeh Wen-hsiang was detained by prosecutors early Saturday, while government
agencies continue to track the companies that used the company's oils and the
products made with them.
More than
1,000 food manufacturers and restaurants are said to have used the questionable
oils from Chang Guann in their products.
Health minister
Chiu, meanwhile, was quoted by his aide as saying on Saturday that he had no
time to think about resigning for the time being because he was busy handling
the aftermath of the substandard oil mess.
But Chiu
said he would not shirk any responsibility that fell his way, his aide added.
Also
Saturday, Executive Yuan spokesman Sun Lih-chyun said Chiu expressed his
willingness to take responsibility for the food scare during the regular weekly
cabinet meeting last week, but noted that the issue was not discussed during
the meeting.
On Friday,
several lawmakers urged Chiu to step down to take responsibility for what they
see as his poor handling of the food safety scare.
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Yeh Wen-hsiang apologizes for the oil scandal, Sept. 11. (Photo/CNA)
|
Kuo Lieh-cheng covers his face with a hat as
he rushes into Pingtung District Court, Sept. 6.
(Photo/Lin Ho-sheng)
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