Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團) chairman Wei Ying-chun (魏應充) was indicted yesterday and released on NT$10 million (US$340,000) bail over allegations that his company had produced and marketed adulterated oil.
Ting Hsin recalled the 21 products — sold under the Wei Chuan (味全) brand — on Sunday, 19 days after Chang Chi Foodstuff Factory Co’s (大統長基) oil was found to contain illicit substances. Wei said at the time that the company would take full responsibility, but denied previous knowledge about Chang Chi’s misconduct.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office listed Wei and Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全食品) general manager Chang Chiao-hua (張教華) as defendants and four executives as witnesses after raiding Wei Chuan’s office on Wednesday.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The prosecutors charged Wei and Chang with fraud, which carries a maximum prison term of five years, mislabeling and violating the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法), said Huang Mou-hsin (黃謀信), spokesperson for the prosecutors’ office.
Chang was released on a NT$5 million bond, along with the four witnesses. They have all been barred from leaving the country.
Huang said prosecutors were investigating whether Wei and his firm knew that Chang Chi’s oil products were tainted prior to purchase.
Wei has said he did not know that Chang Chi’s oil contained the illegal substance copper chlorophyllin until Chang Chi chairman Kao Cheng-li (高振利) confessed to prosecutors on Saturday.
He told reporters upon his release yesterday that he had told prosecutors everything based on his understanding of the case, declining to elaborate because the investigation was ongoing.
The Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office raided Ting Hsin’s factories in Changhua County and Pingtung County on Wednesday and transferred the seized documents to the Taipei office for further investigation.
The latest food safety crisis began with the discovery that Chang Chi had used illegal substances in its oil products. The controversy snowballed after more companies were found to have sourced their oil products from Chang Chi, undermining public confidence in local edible oil products.
In an attempt to compensate consumers, Wei Chuan Foods has said it would allocate NT$50 million to refund customers who had bought the 21 products even if they no longer have the purchase receipts or had opened the products.
The company said it bought 2.13 million kilograms of soybean oil from Chang Chi to make vegetable oil, but stopped using that oil in August.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary