Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業) interim spokesman Tu Chung-cheng (涂忠正) yesterday confirmed that the company in 2012 used 47 tonnes of coconut oil intended for animal feed.
Tu said Uni-President bought the animal feed-grade products from its oil and fat-producing subsidiary, President Nisshin Corp (統清), and used them from Aug. 20, 2012, to Oct. 31, 2012. He said President Nisshin procured the problematic products from Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial Co (頂新製油實業), which in turn had imported them from Vietnam-based oil manufacturer Dai Hanh Phuc Co (大幸福).
Uni-President last year bought 118 tonnes of the 442 tonnes of coconut oil that President Nissin procured from Ting Hsin Oil and Fat, Tu said.
However, Uni-President stopped doing business with the supplier later that year after becoming aware that Ting Hsin Oil and Fat, a subsidiary of Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團), had purchased low-cost oils from Chang Chi Foodstuff Factory Co (大統長基) and sold them on to many local companies, including Uni-President, Tu said.
The company has been importing its coconut oil from the Philippines since then, he added.
According to Tu, his firm is planning to sue Ting Hsin over the damage the oil might have caused to Uni-President’s reputation, while also considering a compensation scheme for consumers.
Separately yesterday, when asked why the Food and Drug Agency did not post a clear list of all products affected by the inferior oil when the case broke, the agency’s acting director-general, Chiang Yu-mei (姜郁美), said that it did previously announce which oils were imported from Dai Hanh Phuc and also gave a special explanation on the relevant coconut oil, which was imported in 2012 and therefore not present in any currently available products.
As for any new developments in the case, Chiang said the matter was still being investigated by the Changhua County District Prosecutors’ Office.
Any suspicious oil products discovered would be immediately announced, Chiang said, adding that any companies buying those products would also be named.
Meanwhile, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) accused the Ministry of Health and Welfare of covering up for Uni-President, adding that the company’s responsibility should not be forgiven simply because those products’ expiration dates have passed.
Lin also said that the “ever shrinking” reported amount of coconut oil imported by President Nisshin — which dropped from 474 tonnes to 47 tonnes — was also a ministry attempt to shield the company.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
RSS