Two former senior executives of a cooking oil company were each sentenced on Tuesday to one year and four months in prison, suspended for two years, and NT$25 million (US$821,000) in fines for mixing cheaper oils into the company’s well-known “pure” sesame oil products sold in Taiwan.
In addition to the sentences given to former Flavor Full Foods Inc (富味鄉) chairman Chen Wen-nan (陳文南) and his brother, Chen Jui-li (陳瑞禮), technical development director at Flavor Full, the company itself was fined NT$5 million.
Four others at the firm — research and development center manager Lin Jui-tsung (林瑞聰), supplies section head Liu Chi-wei (劉騏瑋) and two technicians — were found not guilty on the grounds that they were not policymakers for the marketing and labeling of the company’s products.
The Changhua District Prosecutors’ Office indicted the Chen brothers and four employees late last year on charges of fraud and contravening the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) by mixing cheaper oil into so-called 100 percent pure sesame oil products since December 2009.
The Changhua District Court acquitted all six of the defendants of the fraud charges due to inadequate evidence.
Tuesday’s sentence for the Chen brothers was decided after judges considered their admission of wrongdoing and their willingness to recall the adulterated products and make improvements in product labeling, as well as their pledges to make donations for the public good.
Flavor Full Foods is the largest sesame oil producer in Taiwan and the second-largest in the world.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition