Controversial oils sold by Vietnamese exporter Dai Hanh Phuc Co to Taiwanese companies have been confirmed as products for use in animal feed, Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Hsu Ming-neng (許銘能) said yesterday.
Hsu said the Food and Drug Administration has received an official telegram from the Vietnamese government stating that Dai Hanh Phuc exports were all animal feed-grade oils.
At the heart of the food scare is the use of beef tallow imported by Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial Co (頂新製油實業), a subsidiary of the Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團), from Dai Hanh Phuc.
Dai Hanh Phuc is thought to have exported a total of 5,802 tonnes of falsely labeled animal feed-grade oil — including 3,216 tonnes of lard, 2,476 tonnes of beef tallow and 110 tonnes of coconut oil — to Ting Hsin Oil over the past three years.
The discovery has led to a recall of 54 Ting Hsin Oil products and eight beef tallow items, affecting many local food companies, including leading food maker Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業), which runs the nation’s 7-Eleven stores.
Earlier yesterday, Minister of Health and Welfare Chiang Been-huang (蔣丙煌) said his ministry would begin targeting “daily necessity” foodstuffs after checks on cooking oil come to an end this month.
The ministry began checking 27 major oil and fat makers with paid-in capital of at least NT$30 million (US$987,000) in the wake of the cooking oil scandal over the past two months.
“These checks will soon end. With only a few oil makers yet to be checked, we expect the work to be completed by the end of this month,” Chiang said.
He said the ministry would next target bulk foodstuffs, such as flour and soybeans, although he added that the precise items to be scrutinized would need to be discussed internally.
“We will set priorities. The ultimate goal is to have an across-the-board examination,” he said.
Meanwhile, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Wei Kuo-yen (魏國彥) said during a meeting of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee in Taipei that all waste food oil and animal fat, listed under tariff code 1518, would be banned from being imported.
When asked by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Su Ching-chuan (蘇清泉) whether the import of waste cooking oil should be allowed in consideration of the recent scare, Wei said that all waste oils imports — including animal and vegetable oil — are to be banned.
Wei said that in the past, waste cooking oils were imported for industrial use, such as the manufacture of biodiesel or soap. However, he said, the amount of waste food oil produced domestically is sufficient for those purposes and, therefore, no waste cooking oils would be imported after the EPA issues an ordinance before the end of this month.
KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) asked Wei how the EPA plans to prevent adulterated cooking oils labeled for industrial use from entering the country.
Wei said that waste cooking oils do not conform to the standards applied for industrial oils, so they are imported under tariff code 1518, which is used for importing miscellaneous oils that do not belong to any specific category.
He said the EPA has held meetings with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Finance about improving inspections.
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