Namchow Chemical Industrial Co (南僑化學工業) was fined NT$30 million (US$1 million) by Taipei City Government’s Department of Health yesterday for evading cargo inspections on imported oil.
The firm had falsely reported imported oil as industrial-grade, avoiding the rigorous inspection procedures required for edible oils, the department said.
Later yesterday, Namchow chairman Alfred Chen (陳飛龍) held a press conference after the alleged false declarations were made public by the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Taoyuan County Government.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Chen admitted the group did make mistakes in its declarations of imported non-edible fat and oil products and would accept the administrative fines by the government.
Chen said the group would not claim national compensation, despite “feeling wronged” that its food products had been subject to a precautionary recall.
He said that the products are totally safe for cooking and consumption, and that he expected the government to allow sales of the products to resume as soon as possible.
Chen said the company did not intentionally declare edible fats and oils as non-edible ones, as it would not do anything illegal on purpose just to cut costs.
The case falls within the jurisdiction of the Taipei City Government because the company is registered in the capital.
“After going over the documentation provide by Nanchow, we’ve verified that a portion of the firms’ oil imports were registered incorrectly,” Taipei Department of Health Commissioner Lin Chi-hung (林奇宏) said, adding that there were 30 individual cases of incorrect registrations.
Based on the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), the department would fine the firm NT$1 million per case, a total fine of NT$30 million, he said.
Namchow has imported 12 shipments of beef tallow from Australia, and 34 shipments of coconut oil and three shipments of palm oil from the Philippines since last year, Lin said.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health and Welfare demanded that Namchow present official certification from the countries of origin of the imported oils to prove they were fit for human consumption.
Namchow later presented official documents that it said proved that the products were safe for human consumption.
Early yesterday, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) said that the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry confirmed that the beef tallow imported by Namchow was edible.
However, more information on Namchow’s imports from the Philippines was still needed, Lin told a meeting at the legislature.
According to a report by the Central News Agency from Manila yesterday evening, the Philippine Department of Agriculture has confirmed the authenticity of the documents presented to the FDA by Namchow.
Additional reporting by CNA
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,
LETTER, FLAG FLAP: A Chinese man and woman reportedly tried to snatch a letter meant for Taiwanese winners, while China’s team took offense at a Taiwanese flag President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday condemned an alleged attempt by two Chinese to snatch a letter of congratulations handed to Taiwan’s taekwondo team after they won silver at the Summer World University Games in Germany on Wednesday. A Chinese man and woman reportedly tried to snatch a congratulatory letter to athletes Hung Jiun-yi (洪俊義), Jung Jiun-jie (鍾俊傑) and Huang Cho-cheng (黃卓乘) from the Ministry of Education, and then argued with reporters. “Why are you taking our things?” reporters asked the pair. “Does that say ‘Chinese Taipei’?” the two Chinese reportedly asked. Following the incident, Sports Administration Director-General Cheng Shih-chung (鄭世忠) wrote on Threads about
RSS