Step down, Shih Chung-liang. When a Minister of Health and Welfare can publicly abandon medical common sense to whitewash political failures, you are no longer worthy of receiving a single cent from the taxpayers of the Republic of China.
This is a decade-long collective insult to intelligence. In 2016, the Food and Drug Administration stated clearly in its newsletter that “sprouted potatoes are not recommended for consumption even after removing the sprouts.” That was the scientific bottom line for protecting national health. By 2026, Shih Chung-liang could unabashedly claim that “sprouting does not equal toxicity.” Does Solanine, a highly heat-stable toxin, automatically disappear from sprouted tubers just because regimes change or ministers are replaced?
The Collapse of Physical Facts: Heat Cannot Save Your Ignorance
The stability of Solanine (molecular formula: C₄₅H₇₃NO₁₅) is every toxicologist’s nightmare. Shih Chung-liang’s attempt to use vague bureaucratic language to rehabilitate a toxin is essentially a collective bullying of science by a political appointee.
Data shows that the decomposition temperature of Solanine is as high as 230°C to 280°C. This means that whether it is household boiling (100°C), baking (about 200°C), or even high-temperature frying, its chemical structure cannot be destroyed. When a potato sprouts, its Glycoalkaloid content can instantly skyrocket from a normal level of less than 10 mg per 100 grams to over the toxic threshold of 20 mg. Minister Shih is now asking the people to gamble on those “not absolute” probabilities, turning every dinner table into a laboratory for bureaucratic buck-passing.
Murder of Physiological Mechanisms: Total Collapse of Acetylcholinesterase
Shih Chung-liang, coming from a medical background, cannot be ignorant of the cruel devastation Solanine inflicts on the human body. It is a potent Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitor.
Once ingested, this toxin locks down the acetylcholinesterase in the human nervous system, causing an accumulation of neurotransmitters and putting nerve cells into a state of continuous, chaotic firing. Clinical symptoms range from acute vomiting and diarrhea to severe convulsions, coma, and even respiratory failure. More fatally, there is no specific antidote for Solanine poisoning in medicine; one can only rely on supportive therapy. You place the citizens at such irremediable physiological risk, and yet you have the audacity to talk about “no absolute correlation”?
The Rot of Professional Honesty is Deadlier Than the Toxin
Behind this “standard drift” is an extremely base administrative arrogance. The government seems to believe that as long as they redefine “toxic,” the risk will disappear. In the event of a poisoning incident, these vague explanations will become bulletproof vests for officials to evade responsibility: it was you who chose potatoes with sprouts too long, it was your unique physical constitution—at any rate, it wasn’t the government’s faulty health education. This method of shifting responsibility is the epitome of bureaucratic shamelessness.
A head of national health and welfare should be the final line of defense for the truth, yet Shih Chung-liang chooses to be a makeup artist for political rhetoric. If even the common sense that “sprouted potatoes are toxic”—something even a primary school student understands—can be emasculated by power, then will the future food safety standards of the Republic of China depend entirely on the political winds of the day for the minister?
You insult not only the intelligence of the people but also all the dignity you possess as a physician and a public health expert.
Shih Chung-liang, your name will be nailed to the pillar of shame in public health history along with this rotting rhetoric. The people do not need a minister who defends toxins, nor a bureaucrat who treats science as nothing. Please take your “sprouting is non-toxic theory” and leave the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Stop using your sprouted and deteriorated profession to continue poisoning the bottom line of this country’s integrity.