The nation’s largest conveyor-belt sushi chain has been banned from applying for prerelease of imported goods for a year after it was discovered to have processed a batch of salmon imported last month before receiving an import permit, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
FDA Northern Center for Regional Administration official Wang Te-yuan (王德原) said importers of food products that are prone to deterioration and spoiling are permitted to file for prerelease of the goods and keep them in freezer storage units of their choosing while the agency’s border control inspectors examine the goods, which usually takes more than five days.
“Sushi Express imported a 3,023kg batch of Atlantic salmon and Danube salmon last month. Given the nature of the goods, the sushi chain applied for a prerelease on Thursday last week and put the salmon into its refrigerated storage unit to ensure that the fish would not rot before an import permit was granted,” Wang said.
The permit was granted at 6pm on Saturday last week, but officials from the Taoyuan Department of Public Health who were dispatched to inspect the storage unit before 6pm discovered that Sushi Express employees had already sliced and processed the salmon, Wang said.
Sushi Express has more than 200 branches nationwide. It also has 80 outlets overseas.
Wang said the firm had breached Article 33 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), which stipulates that products granted prior release should not be moved, used or sold until an import permit has been obtained.
The ban means that Sushi Express can only purchase raw foods from overseas via another company for the next year, Wang added.
The ban came on the heels of a scandal late last month involving the alleged bribing of Taipei customs and Taoyuan Health Department officials to allow the import of tainted shrimp and asparagus from Japan and Southeast Asia.
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