The latest edible oil crisis continued to expand yesterday as health authorities ordered more food products, including breads and pastries, off shelves after they were found to contain substandard oil imported from Vietnam.
The number of products found to contain beef tallow that was intended for animal feed have increased from 61 to 102, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Interim Director-General Chiang Yu-mei (姜郁美) told a news conference.
The latest additions include packaged slices of bread, peanut bread, “pineapple buns” (bo luo mian bao), cream-filled pastries and hotdog buns produced by several Greater Taichung-based food companies, Chiang said.
The list also included 20 types of fruit and sweetened pies from bakery chain Rose Pie (薔薇派), 19 kinds of instant noodle and Japanese oden items from Uni-President Enterprise Corp (統一企業) and five noodle seasoning packs produced by Wei Chuan Food Corp (味全), the FDA said.
At the heart of the food scare is the use of beef tallow imported by Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial Co (頂新製油) imported from Vietnam’s Dai Hanh Phuc Co between June 21 last year and July 4.
The imported beef tallow was intended only for use in animal feed, but Ting Hsin used it in eight types of oil for human consumption that the FDA found were sold to many local food companies, including Uni-President, the nation’s largest food manufacturer, which runs 7-Eleven stores in Taiwan.
As of 10am yesterday, a total of 16.152 tonnes of tainted food products have been pulled from store shelves nationwide, the FDA said.
Separately yesterday, pan-fried dumpling chain Eight Way (八方雲集), which owns more than 700 outlets nationwide, apologized for unwittingly using a baking oil product tainted with Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial Co’s questionable beef tallow.
“We had been using in our corn soup the Ching Shih Chi shortening (金世紀酥油) manufactured by oil and fat producer President Nisshin Corp (統清), which had repeatedly assured us that the beef tallow for the product originated in Australia,” the dumpling chain said in a press release.
Eight Way said President Nisshin continued to reassure it about the quality of its product in a letter it sent on Friday.
Unconvinced, the dumpling chain said it subsequently demanded that President Nisshin reconfirm the source of its ingredient, which prompted the latter to eventually acknowledge at 8:14pm on Saturday that the shortening it procured had been contaminated with Ting Hsin Oil’s potentially problematic beef tallow.
“We are deeply sorry for any inconvenience caused [by the late confirmation],” Eight Way said in the statement.
Eight Way said the 130 barrels of tainted shortening it bought from President Nisshin had been used to manufacture corn soup between June 27 and July 9, adding that consumers who had ordered the product in question during the period can request refunds with the company upon presentation of the purchase receipts.
“Given that some customers may have lost the receipts, we have decided to also donate the NT$9 million [US$296,000] we earned from the sales of corn soup during the period to anti-smoking group the John Tung Foundation and the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families,” the firm said.
The firm made the remarks after President Nisshin was found to have processed part of the 15 tonnes of allegedly animal feed-grade beef tallow it purchased from Ting Hsin Oil in May into three baking oil products, including about 7.7 tonnes of Ching Shih Chi shortening.
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