The "food of the future" could be coming to a convenience store near you, literally.
The Consumer Protection Council (CPC) warned yesterday that some factories supplying lunch boxes and packaged meals to convenience store chains have been fraudulently labeling the food to make products appear fresher than they really are.
Holding up a lunch box found during a surprise raid of a food factory on Jan. 24, council officer Hu Hua-tai (
"They told us it is widespread industry practice," he said at a news conference.
Hu said suppliers faced high penalties if they failed to meet their daily orders, which gave them incentive to stockpile products and label them to order.
Council officers and local health bureau officials conducted a series of nationwide surprise inspections of factories that supply convenience stores with ready-meals or microwavable snacks.
Eleven suppliers were discovered to have been mislabeling the manufacturing dates on their food products, the council said. Sometimes the same batch of food would be labeled with different manufacturing dates, it said.
"The date of manufacture, and by extension the use-by date, becomes meaningless," Hu said.
The raids also turned up food items that had been packaged but were being stored unlabeled, a violation of food safety regulations.
A wide range of products at four major convenience chains were involved, including 7-Eleven, Family Mart, OK Mart and Hi-Life, Hu said.
Suppliers who violate the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) face fines ranging from NT$30,000 to NT$150,000 and have been ordered to end their fraudulent practices, the CPC said.
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that China has “no right to represent Taiwan,” but stressed that the nation was willing to work with Beijing on issues of mutual interest. “The Republic of China has already put down roots in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu,” Lai said in his first Double Ten National Day address outside the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. “And the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China [PRC] are not subordinate to each other.” “The People’s Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan,” he said at the event marking the 113th National Day of
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
SPEECH IMPEDIMENT? The state department said that using routine celebrations or public remarks as a pretext for provocation would undermine peace and stability Beijing’s expected use of President William Lai’s (賴清德) Double Ten National Day speech today as a pretext for provocative measures would undermine peace and stability, the US Department of State said on Tuesday. Taiwanese officials have said that China is likely to launch military drills near Taiwan in response to Lai’s speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims. A state department spokesperson said it could not speculate on what China would or would not do. “However, it is worth emphasizing that using routine annual celebrations or public remarks as a pretext or excuse for provocative or coercive
RSS