KMT stages rally following tainted cooking oil scandal

KMT stages rally following tainted cooking oil scandal as the Chinese Nationalist Party presses for accountability in Taipei over contaminated edible oil. The KMT held a rally on Ketagalan Boulevard calling on the president to apologize and on the premier to step down, citing a carcinogenic compound found in cooking oil produced by Central Union Oil Corp (中聯油脂). The event began at 5pm and organizers said turnout exceeded 150,000 by 7:14pm. The party linked the protest to findings that seven batches of raw soybean cooking oil produced between April and the previous month contained excessive benzopyrene. It criticized the central government for alleged cover-ups and blame-shifting, while Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Huang Kuo-chang urged transparency outside the Executive Yuan. The Food and Drug Administration announced an independent third-party investigation, tracking and batch-by-batch inspections, and recalls, while the Cabinet approved 24-hour reporting rules and fines up to NT$30 million.