Taiwan has halted imports of edible lard oil from Hong Kong indefinitely, and other cooking oil products from Hong Kong, China and Macau will be inspected batch-by-batch at the border starting today, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced yesterday.
FDA Deputy Director-General Chiang Yu-mei (姜郁美) made the announcement one day after Hong Kong’s Centre for Food Safety confirmed that the 87.72 tonnes of lard oil listed as for human consumption that were sold to Greater Kaohsiung oil manufacturer Chang Guann Co (強冠企業) by Hong Kong-based Globalway Corp Ltd (金寶運貿易) this year were actually meant for animal use only.
The feed oil was provided by Hong Kong-based oil maker Po Yuen Grease Co (寶源油脂公司), the center said.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
“Statistics showed that Chang Guann had imported 56 batches of lard oil weighing 2,385.1 tonnes in total from Hong Kong since 2008, about 300 tonnes of which were purchased from Globalway Corp between 2011 and this year,” Chiang said.
Chiang said that because the survey reports for the 300 tonnes of imported lard were all provided by the same notary company, Eagle View Co Ltd, the country would no longer accept survey reports issued by notary firms for food products imported from the three areas.
“From now on, only reports provided by local health authorities will be accepted,” Chiang said, adding that Chang Guann was the only Taiwanese firm that had bought lard from Globalway Corp.
Photo: CNA
The FDA yesterday also listed 24 more commercial-use edible lard products manufactured by Chang Guann that were suspected of containing the alleged animal feed oil from Hong Kong.
“The administration and Greater Kaohsiung Government’s Department of Health inspected Chang Guann’s suspended factory in Greater Kaohsiung yesterday morning and sealed all lard oil believed to be contaminated with the feed oil,” the FDA’s Northern Center section head Wu Ming-mei (吳明美) said.
Wu said that since Chang Guann had mixed the 87.72 tonnes of lard from Po Yuen with the more than 800 tonnes of lard oil it imported from Japan this year, everything had to be sealed.
Food companies that have purchased the 24 lard products are requested to report to local health authorities within 24 hours, or they could face fines of between NT$30,000 and NT$3 million (US$998 and NT$99,800) under Article 7 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), Wu said.
Separately yesterday, Chang Guann chairman Yeh Wen-hsiang (葉文祥) denied any prior knowledge of the actual contents of the oil products his company had purchased from Kuo Lieh-cheng (郭烈成), the owner of an unlicensed Pingtung County company, and from Globalway Corp.
Yeh said he did not know Kuo because he was only in charge of the firm’s import and international businesses, while procurement of domestic raw materials was the responsibility of the company’s deputy general-manager, Tai Chi-chuan (戴啟川).
As for Chang Guann’s business dealings with Globalway Corp, Yeh said the product he had ordered was edible lard.
He acknowledged only that he had failed in his obligation to safeguard the quality of his products for the consumers, while attributing the oil scare to the government’s failure to strictly regulate food raw materials.
“I plan to seek compensation from Kuo and Globalway Corp. The money, along with my firm’s remaining assets of about NT$400 million, will all be used to reimburse companies affected by the incident for their losses,” Yeh said.
Yeh made a show of drinking a cup of oil his firm produced before kneeling down on the ground and bowing in front of reporters.
After listening to a report on the oil scandal at the Executive Yuan yesterday, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) reiterated the government’s determination to crack down on food safety irregularities that he said has taken a serious toll on Taiwan’s food industry and the nation’s hard-earned reputation as a “Kingdom of Delicacies.”
“We solemnly deplore such unlawful acts and will subject the culprits to the severest penalties,” Jiang said.
In related developments, tourism industry insiders yesterday said that the number of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan during China’s Oct. 1-7 National Day holidays could drop by 20 percent due to the recent food scare involving adulterated edible oil.
The Travel Quality Assurance Association said Chinese tourists, especially those planning to travel in lower-budget groups, have shown the greatest concern among tourists of all nationalities, adding that the association has received many calls from Chinese tourists who are mainly worried about quality of their meals.
To prevent sales performances from being affected by the scandal, some pastry stores selling pineapple cakes and other traditional Taiwanese snacks have also listed the ingredients of their products on their Web sites in an effort to rebuild consumer confidence.
Last year, about 20,000 Chinese group tourists visited Taiwan during China’s National Day holiday.
In response to industry worries, the Tourism Bureau said it has started to inspect restaurants frequently visited by Chinese tourists.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS