The Banciao District Court yesterday sentenced Chen Che-hsiung (陳哲雄), the owner of Pin Han Perfumery Co in New Taipei City (新北市), to 13 years in prison for fraud after the company used the chemical diisononyl phthalate, or DINP, in clouding agents.
Chen’s wife, Wang Fen (王粉), was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while their two sons — Chen Wei-cheng (陳威丞) and Chen Wei-chuan (陳威銓) — were found not guilty.
The sentences can be appealed.
The Banciao District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Che-hsiung, Wang and their two sons in June on charges of fraud and multiple violations of the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法).
That indictment recommended a 25-year jail term plus a fine of NT$10 million (US$335,000) for owner Chen Che-hsiung; a 20-year prison term and a fine of NT$8 million for Wang; and 15-year and 10-year sentences and fines of NT$5 million and NT$3 million for Chen Wei-cheng and Chen Wei-chuan respectively.
Prosecutors said Chen Che-hsiung knew that DINP was harmful and deliberately violated the law by adding it to food products.
The court found Chen Wei-cheng not guilty, saying that although he was called to assist in the process, he was not aware that the clouding agents were mixed with a toxic chemical.
Chen Wei-chuan was also found not guilty because although he put his name to the process, he did not actually take part in it.
The nation was hit by a food scare in late May when local food ingredient suppliers Yu Shen Chemical Co and Pin Han Perfumery Co were found to be adding plasticizers to clouding agents, a food additive commonly used in sports drinks, fruit jelly, jam, yogurt mix powder and dietary supplements.
The case against Yu Shen Chemical Co is still ongoing.
The food scare forced the widespread recall of products and consumer confidence was heavily affected. It also prompted the legislature in June to pass an amendment to the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) that imposes stiffer penalties for food safety violations.
To deter the use of banned food ingredients and additives, the maximum fine for violations has been raised to NT$6 million from NT$300,000.
The amendment stipulates that food or food additives that are harmful to human health, are toxic or contain substances that are harmful to human health, or are contaminated by pathogens, shall not be manufactured, processed, prepared, packaged, transported, stored, sold, imported, exported, presented as a gift or publicly displayed.
Violators could be forced to close their business or have their license revoked in severe cases.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
Taiwan’s coffee community has launched a “one-person-one-e-mail” campaign, calling for people to send a protest-e-mail to the World Coffee Championships (WCC) urging it to redesignate Taiwanese competitors as from “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei.” The call followed sudden action last week after the WCC changed all references to Taiwanese competitors from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei,” including recent World Latte Art champion Bala (林紹興), who won the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego earlier this month. When Bala received the trophy, he was referred to as representing Taiwan, as well as in the announcement on the WCC’s Web site, until it
RSS