A seafood wholesaler in New Taipei City was raided on Tuesday for allegedly selling expired frozen seafood and an investigation into its products continued yesterday.
Yuyang International (漁洋國際) was found to be storing large amounts of frozen seafood that had expired or were without expiration dates.
The New Taipei City Department of Health said 23,417kg of suspicious products had been confiscated and sealed up at the company’s three storage depots, but the probe was ongoing.
Photo: courtesy of New Taipei City Department of Health
“So far, we have not uncovered all the previously expired products, because we are still examining the three storage depots. We hope to finish the investigation by today,” New Taipei City Department of Health Deputy Commissioner Hsu Chao-chen (許朝程) said.
Hsu said most frozen seafood has a storage life of about two years, but they found 12 types of product purchased before 2011, including tiger shrimps purchased in 2005 and atka mackerel purchased in 2007.
The department said that 170 different expired products were sold last year. Restaurants at several luxury hotels — the Howard Hotel, Hotel Royal-Nikko Taipei, the Westin Taipei, Tien Lai Spring Resort, Palais de Chine and the Fleur de Chine Hotel — have purchased seafood products from Yuyang International.
In addition, Hsiunghsun Co (雄勳) of Taichung, was found to have altered the expiration dates of spice products and sold them to food processing companies, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said.
The FDA said 23 tonnes of expired spice products were discovered and sealed at the firm’s storage depot.
The owner of the company admitted that it changed the expiration dates and sold five batches of a meat seasoning powder, seven batches of garlic extract, three batches of rosemary seasoning and two batches of soy milk powder — 475kg of ingredients — between March 2014 and last month, the agency added.
A major meat and poultry processing company, CP Taiwan (台灣卜蜂), was among the firms that had purchased expired spices from Hsiunghsun, adding them to 10 processed chicken and pork products.
The FDA said about 11,000kg of suspected expired spices were found at its storage depot and the local health bureau had ordered the firm to stop shipping products.
Local health bureaus had informed retailers to recall the problematic products, it said.
The FDA said the two companies face a fine of between NT$60,000 and NT200 million (US$1,835 and US$6.12 million) for violating the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法) and they could also be forced to shut down.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique