Taipei: Premier Cho Jung-tai on Monday ordered health authorities to complete within a week all testing of samples linked to tainted cooking oil produced by Central Union Oil Corp. and draft amendments to food safety regulations within the same timeframe as the scandal continued to widen.

According to Focus Taiwan, Cho issued five directives during a special Cabinet meeting on the case. These directives cover testing, conditions for returning recalled products to store shelves, regulatory reform, school food safety, and consumer protection, as stated by Cabinet spokeswoman Michelle Lee in a statement.

Cho emphasized that all oil batches confirmed to have been contaminated are to be immediately removed from sale. Additionally, all edible oils and related products made using Central Union oil produced between April and June have been recalled as a precautionary measure.

Among the 29 batches of oil produced by the company during that period, three batches were never shipped, while downstream products from five batches have tested above the legal limit for the carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene (BaP). Samples from the remaining 21 batches are still under testing, and Cho has mandated that all inspections be completed within a week.

Cho further instructed the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) to develop rules allowing recalled products to be returned to store shelves only after passing inspections by the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) or accredited third-party laboratories, with each batch verified and supply chains cross-checked.

The MOHW was also tasked with drafting amendments to the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation and related regulations within a week. The proposed changes aim to tighten oversight of raw materials and manufacturing processes, require more frequent self-testing by manufacturers, strengthen oversight of in-house laboratories, and increase inspections of high-risk operators.

The Ministry of Education was directed to continue monitoring affected school lunch supply chains, while economic and consumer protection authorities were tasked with coordinating product refunds and ensuring stable domestic supplies of cooking oil and animal feed, Lee added.

These directives follow the Taichung City government's identification of two additional contaminated batches of oil and hundreds of downstream businesses that received products made from them.

Health Minister Shih Chung-liang noted on Sunday that the TFDA is withholding test results from all 29 batches due to suspicions of falsified samples provided by Central Union, following discrepancies between the company's samples and tests of downstream products.

Central Union was fined NT$165.2 million (US$5.2 million) on July 7 for failing to promptly report excessive BaP levels in its soybean cooking oil. The issue came to light in late June when Central Union reported a 1,300-metric-ton batch of soybean oil produced on April 4 contained BaP at four times the legal limit, nearly three weeks after initially learning of the problem.

As of Sunday, 144 metric tons of affected products had been recalled nationwide, the TFDA confirmed.