Numerous proposals for improved food safety have been put forth since Taiwan’s brand-name food manufacturers were found to have been churning out substandard products made with tainted fat or other questionable ingredients.

Chief among the proposals has been a call for “thorough investigations, speedy trials, and tough sentences that must be served to the fullest extent.”

Those are the solutions that Leo Lee, chief executive officer of the Taichung-based Chinese Restaurant and Hotel Association, sees as the best deterrents to unethical and dishonest business practices in Taiwan.

“If this had happened in China, Ting Hsin would’ve been in grave trouble,” Lee said. “The main perpetrators very likely would’ve been executed, as in the melamine-tainted powdered milk scandal in 2008.”

He was referring to a major food safety scare in China that landed four main suspects in jail for life and resulted in the execution of two others.

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