Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團) said yesterday that it would shut down two of its subsidiaries until consumer confidence is restored.
Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial Co (頂新製油實業) and Cheng I Food Co Ltd (正義) are to suspend operations until consumers’ food safety concerns end, Wei Ying-chun (魏應充), former chairman of Ting Hsin Oil, Cheng I and Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全食品工業), said at a press conference.
It was Wei’s first public appearance since Cheng I was accused on Wednesday last week of adding oil meant for animal feed to products meant for human consumption.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
“I really have to apologize to the public for making them uneasy,” said Wei, who left his role as chairman of the three firms on Thursday last week amid the latest cooking oil scandal.
In addition to the temporary shutdowns, the presidents of the two subsidiaries would also step down, Wei said.
The Ting Hsin group will invite food safety experts and consultants to inspect and evaluate the safety issues facing the firms, Wei said, adding that exiting the nation’s cooking oil manufacturing market for good may be an option if the group cannot assure food safety in the future.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Wei said the group promises to take “the best care” of the about 260 employees to be affected by the closures.
Sales for the two companies averaged NT$2 billion to NT$2.2 billion (US$65.7 million to US$72.3 million) a year.
While apologizing to the public, employees, shareholders and the government over the latest scandal, Wei said the group would take full responsibility for consumers’ rights, but did not specify details of any potential compensation plans.
Wei choked with sobs several times during the press conference, reiterating that he would become a lifelong volunteer contributor to the nation’s food safety, hoping consumers would give the food firm one more chance to stand up.
However, even though Wei made pledges to reform the two companies’ management and ensure food safety, Ting Hsin faces rising pressure from consumers, as well as several city and county governments, amid a wide range of product boycotts, as this has been the third food safety scandal involving the group within a year.
Meanwhile, shares of Wei Chuan, a listed subsidiary of the group, might face another selling spree tomorrow.
On Thursday, Wei Chuan, the nation’s second-largest food manufacturer, saw its shares tumble 6.25 percent to close at NT$31.5, shrinking for the second straight trading day amid the scandal.
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
FAST RELEASE: The council lauded the developer for completing model testing in only four days and releasing a commercial version for use by academia and industry The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) yesterday released the latest artificial intelligence (AI) language model in traditional Chinese embedded with Taiwanese cultural values. The council launched the Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine (TAIDE) program in April last year to develop and train traditional Chinese-language models based on LLaMA, the open-source AI language model released by Meta. The program aims to tackle the information bias that is often present in international large-scale language models and take Taiwanese culture and values into consideration, it said. Llama 3-TAIDE-LX-8B-Chat-Alpha1, released yesterday, is the latest large language model in traditional Chinese. It was trained based on Meta’s Llama-3-8B
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has