1At the beginning of April, 979, many teachers and students of Huiming School for the Blind in Daya Township, Taichung County developed symptoms of cooking oil poisoning such as dark skin and toad-like papules, and the rice bran oil incident broke out.
Huiming School for the Blind is a charity school for blind children. Due to the limited official allocation, its funds are relatively tight. At the beginning of 1979, a dealer took the initiative to sell cheap rice bran oil to the school, and the school decided to purchase rice bran oil as cooking oil for the school canteen.
At first, teachers and students didn't notice anything unusual, and even thought the dishes made of rice bran oil were quite delicious. Until April, many blind children's skin began to turn black, covered with acne, painful and itchy, and there was an oily smell after being squeezed. Dermatologists and schools were shocked when teachers and students even turned their nails and eyes black, and the number of teachers and students rose rapidly from 10 to 100. It may be food poisoning.
Principal Chen took the initiative to seal up all the ingredients and oils. On the one hand, he asked the government to find out the cause, on the other hand, he inquired about the cause through doctors and friends.
A few months later, employees in a factory near the school had similar symptoms. The general manager of Huiming School for the Blind found that they all bought edible oil from the same food store-rice bran oil from Changhua Oil Company.
The rice bran oil incident broke out in Taiwan Province Province because rice bran oil was polluted by a toxic chemical called polychlorinated biphenyls during processing. However, at that time, the relevant departments of Taiwan Province Provincial Department were still afraid to release the information that rice bran oil might be contaminated.
It was not until June+10 in 5438 that a Japanese scientific research institution confirmed that contaminated rice bran oil was the main cause of food poisoning. At this time, the number of victims has reached 2025.
It's never too late to mend.
1979 rice bran oil incident shocked the whole society in Taiwan Province province, and also attracted the attention of the competent authorities and private consumer organizations in Taiwan Province province. As a result, the society in Taiwan Province Province began to build an increasingly strict food safety network and strengthen food safety supervision.
In order to ensure food safety, the Taiwan Province provincial authorities subsequently formulated and passed the "Strengthening Food Hygiene Management Program" and set up a food hygiene department within the "Department of Health". In the following years, health bureaus of counties and cities in Taiwan Province Province set up food hygiene departments and added a large number of food hygiene inspectors. The construction of this food safety and hygiene management system has created the first line of defense for the food safety of people in Taiwan Province Province.
In view of the problem of edible oil safety, the relevant departments of Taiwan Province Province have also formulated strict system norms and countermeasures.
In order to prevent "toxic oil", including waste oil, from flowing into people's dining tables, the environmental protection department of Taiwan Province Province has classified and managed three sources of waste oil: ordinary families, government agencies, schools and catering businesses. Garbage trucks driving in the streets and alleys of Taiwan Province Province are equipped with containers that can hold waste cooking oil, and they can collect waste cooking oil from ordinary families and institutions and schools at any time. Fast food restaurants or restaurants that produce a large amount of waste oil will be specially controlled. Their waste oil must be handed over to professional and legal cleaning companies, and operators must register how much waste oil is produced and who to hand it over to for treatment or reuse.
In Taiwan Province Province, not only the gutter oil can't be sold casually, but also the kitchen waste in the catering industry must be treated according to the same regulations.
More importantly, according to the provisions of the Waste Management Law of Taiwan Province Province, failure to remove and treat wastes according to regulations will lead to human diseases, and the most serious case can be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than seven years and a fine of not more than NT$ 6,543,800.
In addition to strengthening management by administrative departments, social forces such as consumers and media have also played a prominent role in food safety, especially edible oil safety in Taiwan Province Province.
In Taiwan Province Province, there is fierce competition among all kinds of media, and in order to survive, they always rack their brains to dig up all kinds of scandals. Once a reporter of a certain media smells the clue of food safety, he will often chase after it, and other media will follow suit in droves, which is enough to ruin the business of making harmful and toxic food. While supervising manufacturers, the media will also exert strong public pressure on government departments, making food safety supervision and inspection departments dare not take it lightly.
From the overall situation of more than 30 years, although there have been some problems in food safety in Taiwan Province Province recently, such as plasticizer and clenbuterol.