Parents are anxious, why can't lean pigs be banned from the campus directly? Ministry of Education: if the law needs to be amended, it will not be compulsory.

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Since President Tsai ing-wen announced that New Year's Day would open up the import of pork containing ractopamine (hereinafter referred to as "Lai Pig") next year, it has aroused doubts from all walks of life, and parents are worried that cheap Lai Pig will be widely used by school meal operators, affecting the health of school children. The Ministry of Education recently released a news release saying that all campus groups use domestic pork, but the current regulations can only recommend "priority use". It is still unknown whether Laizhu will enter the campus in the future.

Group caterers and dietitians believe that the probability of students eating Lai pig directly in the future is not high, but the long-term effect of Lai pig on group diet is worthy of observation and attention.

It is still unknown whether imported beautiful pigs will be used for school children's nutritious lunches in the future (upstream and downstream data)

Unless the law is amended, the Ministry of Education has no right to require school group meals to "must" use domestic pork.

After the Lai pig import policy was announced, the Ministry of Education announced an instant news on the official website on the same day (8.28): according to Article 23 of the School Health Law, "schools supplying meals should give priority to local excellent agricultural products certified by the central agricultural authorities. The use of genetically modified fresh foods and their primary processed products is prohibited." To reassure parents across the country, Lai Pig will not be served in school meals and eaten in the mouth of children.

However, the laws and regulations clearly use the suggested words "should be given priority", but the press release of the Ministry of Education says that "all domestic high-quality pork should be used." what is the attitude of the Ministry of Education?. As a matter of fact, at present, the government is unable to enforce the use of ingredients for campus group meals. Lin Yaxing, section chief of the Department of Comprehensive Planning of the Ministry of Education, said: "unless it is amended by legislation to specify that 'only domestic products can be used' and penalties are laid down, otherwise, Article 23 of the School Health Law does not have any coercive force."

Press release of the Ministry of Education

Processed food does not belong to "fresh food" or even within the scope of control.

In addition, the so-called "fresh ingredients" also have a lot of room for interpretation. Lin Yaxing said that the "fresh food" mentioned in the School Hygiene Law is defined in the Food labelling regulations of the Food Administration of the Ministry of Health: "without combination, adhesion or pressing, only fascia is removed, trimmed or sliced and conditioned." in other words, the familiar faces on the school meal menus such as lion head, melon meat, throwing pigs and Sautéed Vermicelli with Spicy Minced Pork are not "fresh ingredients", not to mention other common side dishes. Such as meat soup, Fuzhou balls and other pork frozen processing products, as well as "fish balls", "fish dumplings" and other seemingly seafood products, in fact, also contain pork ingredients.

As it is not easy for children to eat the original piece of pork, ground meat, meat pulp, and combined meat have been broken into pieces, which can most hide the details of the devil, but they are not part of the "fresh ingredients" and are not under control.

Parents are anxious, "Why can't we just ban Lai Pig on campus?"

In response to the regulations of the Ministry of Education, a parent surnamed Yang in Taipei said that she could not directly control her children's lunch at school. She had always believed in the supervision of the group meal company by the parents' committee. Today, she was surprised to realize that the government had not asked for a ban on the import of pork at all, which made her extremely anxious about the situation of Lai Pig after it was imported. "I just can't prepare a lunchbox to allow my children to attend a nutritious lunch at school. Can't the government reassure me?" She said.

"I thought it would be all right as long as I didn't buy imported pork. It turned out that my children could still eat imported pigs at school." Mr. Gao, the parent, said. "the government keeps saying that it will take care of the next generation. Is it just a slogan that 'children are the future pillars of the country'? Why can't we just ban Lai Pig on campus? "

The government prepares for the "origin mark". In the future, parents can go to the platform to understand the source of raw materials.

In response to the parents' appeal, Lin Yaxing stated: "of course, we do not want schools to use Lai Pig. We have sent a letter asking everyone to give priority to the use of local ingredients." The stipulation of 'giving priority to use' began in 2015, and it has gradually reached a certain proportion of domestic products over the years. Of course, it can be further strengthened through inter-ministerial cooperation in the future. It is hoped that the Council of Agriculture will provide more cooperation in local food materials and the Ministry of Health and Welfare will conduct more sampling tests. "

Further questioning the attitude of the Ministry of Education towards the use of Lai Pig, Chief Lin said: "the Ministry of Education sent a letter to schools at all levels in the hope that everyone would use domestic agricultural products. Children can only passively accept meals at school, unlike adults who can choose according to the signs outside, which is why schools are required to use domestic pork. " However, the power and responsibility for traceability inspection and punishment for violations do not lie with the Ministry of Education. Lin Yaxing says: "I hope that the laws and regulations of the Council of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health and Welfare will be completed as soon as possible, so that schools can actually buy domestic agricultural products in accordance with the regulations."

In addition, Qiu Chiu-Chan, a special member of the National and Preschool Education Department of the Ministry of Education, mentioned that the government has asked the manufacturers of the "food login platform" to add the field of "origin of raw materials." in the future, even parents can log on to this platform to find out which country the baby ate for lunch today. Which country is the raw material? " At the same time, the Ministry of Education will also cooperate with the Council of Agriculture to launch education and training for lunch ingredients acceptance personnel one after another to let them know how to check the correctness of "pork producing areas" in accordance with laws and regulations.

Inspection requires manpower and funds. Is the government ready?

However, inspection requires manpower and funds, how on earth should local governments cooperate with the laws and regulations? It has always been a missing part of the various instructions issued by the government. In order to understand the existing energy in testing, "upstream and downstream" analyzed the Taichung municipal government's inspection report on school lunches in the first half of this year (February to July). A total of 144 items of lunch "ingredients" were tested in primary and secondary schools. There are 307 junior high schools and primary schools in Taichung. Is this proportion enough?

In addition, next year, New Year's Day should test whether clenbuterol exceeds the standard. The test price asked by the reporter currently ranges from 2500 yuan to 5000 yuan. Does the city government have sufficient funds and manpower?. Are all kinds of accessories ready? So far, no specific administrative plan has been put forward to make parents believe in the gatekeeper ability of the Government.

Group caterers: according to government regulations, it is not easy for school children to eat Lai pig for lunch.

However, after Laizhu is opened, will it enter the campus like the worries of its parents? In order to understand the risk of school children eating lai pigs, Peng Kuang-hsien, director of Taichung group catering manufacturers, said in an actual interview with upstream and downstream: "fresh meat has always used the CAS mark in accordance with the regulations. Whether we import Lai pigs or not cannot change our options." When asked about the selection of processed food materials, Peng Guangxian said: "We will also try our best to choose dumplings and meat buns with the CAS logo." However, he also admitted that there are not many processed foods certified by CAS, and the government does not stipulate that processed foods for group meals must comply with CAS certification.

Peng Guangxian points out that from the perspective of the industrial chain, group caterers only play the role of "assembly and processing," blending and cooking the purchased ingredients into food, and will not produce any processed food themselves. Balls, lion heads, and meat soups are all supplied by upstream manufacturers. To ensure that school children stay away from Lai Pig, the government needs to target raw material manufacturers.

In addition, Liu Xiaojing, a dietitian at the Group meal Company, also mentioned that school group meals are already promoting Chapter 1Q. Except for fresh meat products to be certified by CAS, processed foods can only be produced twice a week, but these two times may be bean products, fish milk products or root products, and the chance of school children really eating processed pork products is actually less than 10%. What's more, some schools will ask that they do not want to provide any processed food to children.

Liu Xiaojing said that there are contract rules for group meals, and operators must log in on the food login platform every day. She made it clear: "compared to relying more on self-discipline, schools are more likely to be managed by the government, and parents do not have to worry too much."

Chairman of the lunch Box Food Union: about 80% of the processed pork foods sold in the market use Taiwanese meat.

Chen Ming-hsin, founding chairman of the National Federation of lunch Box Food Trade Associations of the Republic of China, observes that "there will be no problem in supplying Taiwan's domestic products with fresh pork." He said. Worried about the source of processed raw materials, the association recently consolidated suppliers across the country and found that the outer box of processed food packaging was only marked with "pork." as a result, Chen Mingxin asked the manufacturer to amend the origin mark on the package. at the same time, provide the source of goods, slaughtering certificate and so on. Chen Ming-hsin says that at present, only 20% of the manufacturers are unwilling to cut the knot. He infers that 80% of Taiwan's pork processed foods should still be used by Taiwanese meat.

As for the 20% of suppliers who are "suspected" of using imported meat, will their products be dumped to counties and cities with lower costs for nutritious lunches? Chen Mingxin is unwilling to speculate. Because the group meal contract for this semester has been awarded and is being implemented, he believes that no manufacturer is willing to "go against public opinion" and boldly use imported pigs at this time. "what worries me most is whether schools and parents will continue to care after this observation period and the transition period." After all, the government does not stipulate whether food contains lai agents, as long as the use of beautiful pigs, there will be the risk of lai agents.

In addition, Chen Mingxin is also worried that next year, New Year's Day may lead to a rise in pork prices in Taiwan because consumers avoid eating beautiful pigs. "the price of school group meals is limited, and it is impossible to prevent pork prices from changing too much. If operators cannot afford to buy fresh pork in Taiwan, or will avoid using pork, or use more processed products, this will definitely have an impact on Taiwan's animal husbandry industry."

Where do nearly 120000 tons of imported pork go? You can eat dumplings, pork chops, leg rice and Lu's large intestine.

Lean meat and exquisite pigs will be open, dumplings, tribute balls and so on do not need to indicate the origin of raw materials, buffet snacks are difficult to implement, there is no supporting slogan