Two business executives on Tuesday were charged with illegally importing and falsely labeling food from areas of Japan affected by its 2011 nuclear disaster.
Each a manager of a local food importer, they are accused of importing snacks and soy sauce to Taiwan from the affected areas.
Authorities said one has done so since last year, while the other began the imports this year.
Neither reported their imports to the Food and Drug Administration or Keelung Customs officials, as legally required, authorities added.
Prosecutors said the defendants knew that they were not allowed to import food products from Japan’s Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures, and intentionally hid the origin of their products from downstream firms.
Food products from those prefectures have been banned in Taiwan since the areas are suspected of radiation contamination as a result of a meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in March 2011 after an earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
In March this year, authorities found that products from the five restricted areas had made their way into Taiwan under false labels.
The two managers, surnamed Teng (鄧) and Cho (卓), were charged with falsifying documents and making profits by false pretenses respectively, prosecutors said.
As for potential Japanese accomplices, prosecutors said that they have asked Japan to assist the investigation, but have not yet received a reply.
Prosecutors called on Japan to assist with the investigation to jointly protect customers’ food safety.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS