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
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS