Taiwan's tainted cooking oil scandal has moved to court, with prosecutors charging 15 people — bad news for the companies involved and for a health minister now under political fire.

• Prosecutors in Taichung indicted 15 people, including Zhonglian's chairman, plus four companies, and asked for heavy sentences.
• Zhonglian loosened its standards for damaged soybeans, which pushed a cancer-linked contaminant in the oil above safe limits.
• The company found the problem, did not report it, and shipped the oil to downstream buyers anyway.
• Health Minister Shih Chung-liang says his job is to fix the rules, not to worry about keeping his post; opposition leader Huang Kuo-chang says no official has been held responsible.
• The ruling DPP wants tougher reporting duties and faster product recalls written into the food safety law, since letting companies police themselves clearly failed.

Outlook: Lawmakers will rewrite the food safety rules while the fight over whether the health minister should resign keeps running — separately, a plan to hand every citizen NT$10,000 next year is drawing opposition calls to double it, which the DPP says has no funding source.