The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday updated its list of products suspected to have been processed with lard mixed with animal feed oil that Chang Guann Co (強冠企業) allegedly imported from Hong Kong-based Globalway Corp Ltd, adding 60 more affected food products to raise the total to 133.
Additional products found to have been made with feed oil-contaminated lard included 42 kinds of noodles and seasoning packs from CMUN (蕎麥屋), established in 1946 in Taipei; a seasoning packet distributed with one of Wei Chuan Foods Corp’s (味全食品工業) instant noodle products; and five snacks from a bakery based in Keelung.
FDA Deputy Director-General Chiang Yu-mei (姜郁美) told a press conference that her agency had ordered the 24 products tainted with feed oil to be sealed, and that their disposal was under way.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The FDA on Friday issued a directive ordering that a certificate issued by local food administrative agencies be provided along with all food oil products imported from China, including those from Hong Kong and Macau, as a warranty that the exported products are safe for human consumption before the products can be registered for inspection.
She said that, as of yesterday, the FDA and municipal health agencies have sealed 273.2 tonnes of problem lard oil, of which 11.9 tonnes have been discarded.
When asked about the substances tested during inspections of oil and food product samples, she said “all substances considered to have detrimental effects on the human body are to be scanned,” adding that inspections of the first wave of tainted oil involving Chang Guann’s fragrant lard oil are still ongoing and more results are to be announced.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Separately yesterday, the New Taipei City Public Health Department issued a statement showing the latest progress on its probe into companies that allegedly procured feed oil-tainted lard from Chang Guann Co, which found that Fang Fu (芳福), an edible oil manufacturer based in Sinjhuang District (新莊), had sold 84 tonnes of “Fang Fu Fragrant Lard,” refined with 70 percent of Chang Guann’s “refined lard” (精豬油), to at least nine municipalities across the nation, including Keelung, New Taipei City, Taipei, Greater Taichung and Hsinchu City, as well as Greater Taichung and Taoyuan, Yilan and Yunlin counties.
According to the statement, although the oil company claimed that the customized version of its fragrant lard was refined without the use of Chang Guann’s oil, the department had ordered that all products manufactured between March 1 and Sept. 5 be pulled, as the pipelines used in the manufacturing of the two versions of oil had not been strictly set apart during their refining process.
The department on Friday launched an inspection of the company and found only 7,000kg remained from the 32,240kg of refined lard it purchased from Chang Guann.
The department’s probe yesterday revealed that Kuang Ta Hsiang, a manufacturer of canned food and pork and fish floss, bought up to 16 tonnes of Fang Fu fragrant lard; all of which had been used in the manufacturing of Kuang Ta Hsiang pork floss and fried pork floss.
The remaining amount of the two products is being calculated and the department is working on determining who bought it, it said.
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