Taipei: A Legislative Yuan committee on Wednesday approved a motion proposed by opposition lawmakers calling for Premier Cho Jung-tai and two senior health officials to step down and take responsibility over a cooking oil contamination case. The health officials named are Health Minister Shih Chung-liang and Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) Director-General Chiang Chih-kang.

According to Focus Taiwan, the motion passed 7-5 during a meeting of the legislature's Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, which invited health, education, and economics officials to report on food safety measures following the discovery of excessive levels of the carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene in soybean oil produced by Central Union Oil Corp. Opposition lawmakers criticized the government's handling of the recall process, noting inconsistencies in policy, which initially required recalls only for products containing more than 20 percent of the tainted oil, but later mandated the removal of all affected products.

Kuomintang (KMT) lawmaker Lo Ting-wei dramatically illustrated his point by presenting a bottle containing 80 percent reverse osmosis water and 20 percent water he described as "used to wash feet" to question Health Minister Shih, challenging him with, "Would you drink it? Would you dare drink it?" The opposition motion demanded that the three officials apologize to the public and resign to assume responsibility.

In response, Health Minister Shih expressed his willingness to apologize for the confusion and inconvenience caused by the policy changes, stating that a thorough investigation would precede any accountability decisions. A written report from the Health Ministry detailed that Central Union's soybean oil production and shipments were halted on July 1 as authorities traced the distribution of the tainted products. The TFDA instructed local health authorities to enforce recalls of first-tier products by July 3.

Initially, the ministry required recalls of raw oil products and processed foods containing at least 20 percent of the tainted oil. However, Health Minister Shih later announced on Tuesday that all products made with the contaminated oil, regardless of proportion, must be removed from shelves by the end of Wednesday. The tainted soybean oil produced by Central Union affected approximately 1,300 metric tons of oil distributed through companies such as Taisun Enterprise Co., Fwusow Industry Co., and Formosa Oilseed Processing Co.