News Brief: School lunch suppliers, caterers substandard -- CPC

Many parents deliver hot lunches to the school gates

A random sample by the Consumer Protection Commission (消費者保護委員會) of 57 school lunch ingredient suppliers and caterers in six counties and cities around Taiwan found excessive levels of agrichemicals in ten cases, the National Education Radio (國立教育廣播電台) reported today (full Chinese-language article here). 

All fresh meat products were found to be up to standard, but four processed meat items had unacceptable levels of livestock agrochemicals. Similarly, six vegetable items tested positive for pesticide residues.

The CPC under the Executive Yuan asked the Ministry of Education to instruct schools to deal with the suppliers in accordance with their contracts, and asked the county- and city-level departments of health to investigate the sources of the meat products and deal with the manufacturers in accordance with the law.

No contraventions were found in Taitung County, whereas one to four below-standard ingredients were found in each of Taipei City, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung and Tainan.