To protect food safety and ensure that products such as flat rice noodles, round meat dumplings, oden, tapioca balls, tofu puddings, rice cake, taro and sweet potato dumplings are not contaminated by maleic anhydride, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) worked jointly with all Public Health Bureaus around the country to finish a general investigation, source control, extermination of illegal manufacturing behaviour of starch manufacturers, and stop sellers from selling illegally made starch. Moreover, officers at all health authorities were rallied according to the “0527 Project for Food Safety” from June 1 onwards to conduct a general inspection on all sellers of marketed starch products for posting of safety recognizance, in order to promote safe consumption. The inspection measures taken by the health authorities are to protect consumers’ rights to safe food and consumption, rather than a sheer waste of energy and money as the media reported. 

According to the FDA of the Department of Health, the results of the general inspection to date include: 
(1) Source control: Including 9 starch manufacturers (with 7 in Tainan region and 2 in Chiayi County), and 27 starch distributors. No new enterprise has been found to be involved in the contamination incident. 

(2) Recall and destruction: A total of 391.93 tons were recalled, sealed and stored, and 261 tons were destroyed. The amount of starch sealed and stored has shown little increase. 

(3) Random testing: Positive test result on marketed products has decreased from 38% to about 10%. 

(4) Posting of safety recognizance: According to the recent inspection result, most sellers have posted the safety recognizance as regulated. Unqualified enterprises which fail to post the safety recognizance dropped from 9% to 3% per day. 

FDA expressed that according to the 0527 Project for Food Safety, sellers have to require the starch suppliers to provide a safety proof, so that self-initiated quality control requirement can be ensured. Moreover, with the June 1 general inspection by the health authorities, less and less illegal starch materials and products have been found. All in all, the inspection operation has come to the final stage, and it is hoped that the counties and cities will continue their proactive inspection, so as to protect citizens’ food safety, as well as to reassure the sellers’ reputation.