The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a second-circuit verdict that sentenced Taiwan First Co managing director Chen Hsing-you (陳星佑) and associate director Chen Ching-ju (陳鏡如) to two-and-a-half years and two years in prison respectively for breaches of the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法).
Earnings from the firm, primarily through its Taiwan First Fried Chicken (台灣第一家鹽酥雞) subsidiary, totaling NT$115.9 million (US$3.7 million), have been confiscated, the Supreme Court said.
The nation’s top court upheld the earlier ruling, saying that only the proper authorities are allowed to provide or approve food-grade additives, while industrial-grade products are “not for human consumption.”
Chen Hsing-you, in charge of the company’s signature salt-and-pepper mix, in 2007 began using magnesium carbonate to prevent clumping due to moisture, the Supreme Court said in its verdict.
Chen Hsing-you used industrial-grade magnesium carbonate, as it was cheaper, at NT$50 per kilogram, than food-grade magnesium carbonate at NT$220 per kilogram, it said.
The New Taipei City Department of Health in 2015 launched an investigation into the company and analyses of the powder mix revealed 7 parts per million (ppm) of residual arsenic, it said.
The amount was well over the legal standard of 4ppm and posed liver and kidney risks if ingested continuously over a long period, the verdict said.
Taiwan First’s founder, Chen Ting-chih (陳廷智), was not involved, as he handed the company over to Chen Hsing-you and Chen Ching-ju in 2001, it said.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening 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) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
BACK TO WINTER: A strong continental cold air mass would move south on Tuesday next week, bringing colder temperatures to northern and central Taiwan A tropical depression east of the Philippines could soon be upgraded to be the first tropical storm of this year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the next cold air mass is forecast to arrive on Monday next week. CWA forecaster Cheng Jie-ren (鄭傑仁) said the first tropical depression of this year is over waters east of the Philippines, about 1,867km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), and could strengthen into Tropical Storm Nokaen by early today. The system is moving slowly from northwest to north, and is expected to remain east of the Philippines with little chance of affecting Taiwan,
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