The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday released the names of six companies which purchased Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial Co’s (頂新製油實業) eight beef tallow products which allegedly used oil imported from Vietnam that was intended for animal use, involving 12 finished food items.
On the list were Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全食品) with three noodle sauce products; UTC Foods Co (聯夏食品) with two curry sauce items and one frozen beef stew item; Hsin Yu Yuan Food Co (新玉園食品) with three cream products; Gen Asia Biotech Co (詮亞) with one beef tallow powder product; SE Food Co (三億食品) with one spicy beef tallow item and Happy Brothers Co (幸福兄弟) with one refined butter item.
“As for the other eight firms that also procured the potentially problematic products from Ting Hsin Oil, the FDA will make public a list of the items they manufactured using the alleged animal feed-grade oil when such information becomes available,” FDA Interim Director-General Chiang Yu-mei (姜郁美) told a press conference yesterday afternoon.
All these companies are required to pull from shelves the potentially tainted products in their entirety by midnight tomorrow or face a fine ranging from NT$60,000 to NT$50 million (US$1,975 to US$1.6 million), Chiang said.
However, hours later, the administration crossed Happy Brothers off the list based on the local health agency’s confirmation that the corporation’s refined butter product was intended for industrial use.
“The discovery raised questions as to whether Happy Brothers had been aware of the nature of Ting Hsin Oil’s imported beef tallow when it purchased the oil,” Chiang said.
If it had not, then it must give a reasonable explanation as to why it acquired beef tallow marketed as for human consumption for the production of an industrial use product, Chiang added.
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