HEALTH
I-Mei fined for expired food
Taoyuan County’s Public Health Bureau yesterday fined I-Mei Foods for using expired ingredients in one of their products and said it has referred the case to the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office for investigation. The bureau fined I-Mei Foods NT$150,000 (US$5,000) based on the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) and asked the company to recall the products, and improve production management and control. Prosecutors said I-Mei’s factory in Longtan Township (龍潭) used more than 9,000kg of expired soy protein isolate to make an estimated 5.76 million packs of cream puffs from 2011 to last year. Of the total produced, 4.32 million packs had been consumed, they said. The bureau said I-Mei Foods was trying to recall the cream puffs from its most recent batch of 1.44 million packs that are still on the market.
NATIONAL DEFENSE
Systems failure mooted
A systems failure may have been the reason a two-seater Mirage 2000-5 fighter jet crashed into the Taiwan Strait on Monday during a regular training mission, the air force said on Tuesday, citing the results of an initial investigation. The Mirage plowed into the sea off Hsinchu County, with its two pilots ejecting and parachuting to safety. A task force is continuing to investigate the cause of the crash and all the nation’s Mirage 2000-5s have been grounded for safety inspections. Officials said a failure in the hydraulic pressure and power systems may have caused the crash, but added that the exact cause could not be determined until after a thorough investigation of the wreckage, the black boxes and on-board video. The incident was the second crash within five days. An F-16 crashed during a training mission off Chiayi County on Wednesday last week.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese