McDonald’s said in a statement yesterday that it “respected legal procedures” and that consumers’ health and safety was its primary concern.
The company’s statement came after Taipei County Government Legal Affairs Bureau Director Chen Kun-jung (陳坤榮) yesterday confirmed that the Taipei County Government would fine McDonald’s between NT$60,000 and NT$300,000 according to Article 11 of the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) after cooking oil in two of its restaurants in Tucheng (土城) tested positive for arsenic on June 21.
The arsenic levels at the outlets were 1.038 parts per million (ppm) and 0.923ppm. The legal limit for arsenic in Taiwan is 0.1ppm.
PHOTO: HUANG MEI-CHU, TAIPEI TIMES
Chen had earlier told a press conference that he was “unhappy with McDonald’s reaction” on Sunday after news of the fine first broke.
“They should at least have communicated with us to see how this problem can be fixed, rather than make comments on TV,” Chen said. “I really don’t understand.”
The company’s statement insisted that its food and oil were safe.
“The Department of Health’s (DOH) latest tests on 183 samples of edible oil showed that our oil is safe and meets national standards,” the statement read.
“Restaurants can appeal before July 23 and demand a repeat test. If test results show their frying oil is safe, we will drop the fine,” said Hsu Ming-neng (許銘能), head of Taipei County Government’s health department.
Meanwhile, the DOH yesterday reminded fast food restaurants of their legal right to appeal if they failed tests.
“There is a 15-day mercy period for companies to issue an appeal,” DOH spokesman Wang Jet-chau (王哲超) said.
“If there is no appeal within 15 days, local governments will then issue the fines. The DOH fully endorses this course of action,” he said.
In related news, Taipei City Government’s Department of Health yesterday announced that packets of “Ovalteenies” had been found to be contaminated with the Bacillus cereus bacterium.
The bacterium can cause sickness and diarrhea.
The city government said it would fine Taiwan Hsin Lin Enterprise Co (欣臨) between NT$60,000 and NT$300,000 in accordance with Article 31-1 of the Act Governing Food Sanitation.
The department said the contamination was discovered on July 2.
Taiwan Hsin Lin has recalled a total of 304,128 packs of “Ovalteenies.”
The new discovery yesterday had nothing to do with the first problem.
“Something must be wrong with the manufacturing,” said Lin Chin-fu (林金富), head of the department’s Food and Drug Division.
Lin said that Taiwan Hsin Lin told them that “Ovalteenies” were made in Thailand and that they have told the manufacturer to avoid repeating the mistake.
He also urged the public to return “Ovalteenies” for a full refund.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AGENCIES
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
WATCH FOR HITCHHIKERS: The CDC warned those returning home from Japan to be alert for any contagious diseases that might have come back with them People who have returned from Japan following the World Baseball Classic (WBC) games during the weekend are recommended to watch for symptoms of infectious gastroenteritis, flu and measles for two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. Flu viruses remain the most common respiratory pathogen in Taiwan in the past four weeks and the influenza B virus accounted for 55.7 percent of the tested cases, exceeding the percentage of influenza A (H3N2) infections and becoming the local dominant strain, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said at a news conference on Tuesday. There were 82,187 hospital visits for
Alumni from Japan’s Kyoto Tachibana Senior High School marching band, widely known as the “Orange Devils,” staged a flash mob performance at the Grand Hotel in Taipei yesterday to thank Taiwan for its support after the Great East Japan Earthquake. The show, performed on the earthquake’s 15th anniversary, drew more than 100 spectators, some of whom arrived two hours before the show to secure a good viewing spot. The 26-member group played selections from “High School Musical,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and their signature piece “Sing Sing Sing” and shouted “I love
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
RSS