Taipei: Taiwan's Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) announced Sunday that it will release test results Monday for raw cooking oil and downstream products linked to the Central Union Oil Corp. contamination scandal. The number of affected businesses has remained unchanged at 1,322 for a third consecutive day.
According to Focus Taiwan, TFDA Deputy Director-General Wang Te-yuan stated that testing of raw oil supplied by Central Union and related products was expected to be completed by Sunday. The results are set to be released the following day. Central Union produced 30 batches of oil products between April and June, with three batches never shipped and passing government testing. However, seven batches were found to contain excessive levels of the carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) and have been recalled.
Wang noted that products with sufficient test evidence could potentially be removed from the list of non-compliant items and allowed back on the market. However, he emphasized that laboratory results alone would not determine their relisting. The TFDA collected 224 samples, including raw oil and finished products, from 52 raw oil samples and 321 product samples. Testing could not be conducted on all batches as some companies had not retained reserve samples. As of 11 a.m. Sunday, authorities had recalled 2,769.3 metric tons of products from the seven contaminated batches and removed another 5,200.7 tons from other batches as a precaution, bringing the total withdrawn to 7,970 tons, according to the TFDA's online case tracker.
Separately, Premier Cho Jung-tai announced Sunday that the Cabinet will unveil proposed amendments to the Food Safety and Sanitation Act on Monday alongside the test results. Speaking at the Democratic Progressive Party's national congress in Taipei, Cho mentioned that the amendments aim to clarify the division of responsibilities between central and local governments, strengthen source and production controls, improve incident reporting mechanisms, and enhance digital food safety governance.
The scandal first came to light in late June after Central Union reported that a 1,300-metric-ton batch of soybean oil produced on April 4 contained BaP at nearly four times Taiwan's legal limit. Authorities have indicated that the company became aware of the contamination nearly three weeks before reporting it.