Taipei to re-inspect stinky tofu shop with NT$585k in odor violations

Taipei, Feb. 12 (CNA) The Taipei City government on Thursday said it would schedule new inspections at a Zhongshan District stinky tofu shop that has already been fined NT$585,000 (US$18,613) for odor violations, following a social media user's viral claim that the smell was affecting her mental health.

In a post on the social media platform Threads on Wednesday, a user said the smell from the Yuli Qiaotou stinky tofu shop, near Jiannan Road Station on the MRT's Brown Line, had been causing her "severe anxiety."

The user claimed that in her distress, she had pulled out much of her hair, and included photos of her mostly bald scalp and what appeared to be a pile of lost hair and ointments prescribed by a doctor.

As of Thursday, the post had been "liked" over 19,000 times.

In a statement to reporters on Thursday, Yen Ling-chen (顏伶珍), head of the Taipei Environmental Protection Department's inspection team, said her agency had made multiple visits to the restaurant in response to public complaints dating back to December 2024.

On Feb. 9 of last year, Yen said, her agency conducted an odor concentration test at the restaurant, which detected odor levels over 10 times the legal limit.

The department issued the restaurant a fine of NT$585,000 for the severe violation under the Air Pollution Control Act, Yen said.

At a follow-up visit on April 20, inspectors confirmed that the shop had installed an electrostatic precipitator (kitchen fume cleaner), a commercial dishwasher, and a plasma odor elimination system, all of which brought odor concentration levels to within legal limits, Yen said.

In the months that followed, the number of odor complaints against the restaurant dropped to only two to three per month, and subsequent inspections found no compliance issues, Yen said.

Yen said the number of public complaints had spiked again amid the recent discussion on social media.

Given that it has been a while since the last inspection, Yen said she would likely schedule an odor assessment after the Lunar New Year holiday. She encouraged members of the public to suggest specific locations for the test, to ensure their concerns were addressed.

Under the original Threads post, several commenters confirmed the strong odor surrounding the shop, though it was unclear if it was due to the tofu's potency or just poor ventilation.