A seafood wholesaler in New Taipei City was raided on Tuesday for allegedly selling expired frozen seafood and an investigation into its products continued yesterday.
Yuyang International (漁洋國際) was found to be storing large amounts of frozen seafood that had expired or were without expiration dates.
The New Taipei City Department of Health said 23,417kg of suspicious products had been confiscated and sealed up at the company’s three storage depots, but the probe was ongoing.
Photo: courtesy of New Taipei City Department of Health
“So far, we have not uncovered all the previously expired products, because we are still examining the three storage depots. We hope to finish the investigation by today,” New Taipei City Department of Health Deputy Commissioner Hsu Chao-chen (許朝程) said.
Hsu said most frozen seafood has a storage life of about two years, but they found 12 types of product purchased before 2011, including tiger shrimps purchased in 2005 and atka mackerel purchased in 2007.
The department said that 170 different expired products were sold last year. Restaurants at several luxury hotels — the Howard Hotel, Hotel Royal-Nikko Taipei, the Westin Taipei, Tien Lai Spring Resort, Palais de Chine and the Fleur de Chine Hotel — have purchased seafood products from Yuyang International.
In addition, Hsiunghsun Co (雄勳) of Taichung, was found to have altered the expiration dates of spice products and sold them to food processing companies, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said.
The FDA said 23 tonnes of expired spice products were discovered and sealed at the firm’s storage depot.
The owner of the company admitted that it changed the expiration dates and sold five batches of a meat seasoning powder, seven batches of garlic extract, three batches of rosemary seasoning and two batches of soy milk powder — 475kg of ingredients — between March 2014 and last month, the agency added.
A major meat and poultry processing company, CP Taiwan (台灣卜蜂), was among the firms that had purchased expired spices from Hsiunghsun, adding them to 10 processed chicken and pork products.
The FDA said about 11,000kg of suspected expired spices were found at its storage depot and the local health bureau had ordered the firm to stop shipping products.
Local health bureaus had informed retailers to recall the problematic products, it said.
The FDA said the two companies face a fine of between NT$60,000 and NT200 million (US$1,835 and US$6.12 million) for violating the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法) and they could also be forced to shut down.
INCREASED RISK: The Omicron BA.2.75 subvariant has higher immune evasive capacity, but the CECC is more concerned about newer subvariants such as XBB and BQ.1 With the peak season for infectious respiratory diseases coming to an end, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said that details of the next phase of lifting COVID-19 masking rules — removing the mask requirement in most indoor settings — are to be announced this week. Discussions on lifting other COVID-19 restrictions are also being held, including further easing border control measures, home isolation requirements and revising the definition for reporting cases, while also downgrading COVID-19 to a lower category of notifiable communicable disease, said Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the CECC. As the daily
CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORT: A new committee would investigate a backlog of US weapons sales to Taiwan, said its chairman, US Representative Mike Gallagher The US should formally recognize Taiwan as an independent nation, and end its outdated and counterproductive “one China” policy, US Representative Tom Tiffany and 18 other US lawmakers wrote in a petition. “It is time to change the status quo and recognize the reality denied by the US government for decades: Taiwan is an independent nation,” Tiffany told the Epoch Times. “As our long-standing and valued partner, correctly acknowledging their independence from communist China is long overdue.” The resolution also asks the administration of US President Joe Biden to support Taiwan’s membership in international organizations and to negotiate a bilateral free-trade
GUT FEELING: In the leaked memo, US Air Force General Mike Minihan urged mobile command personnel to go to a firing range, shoot at a target and ‘aim for the head’ A four-star US Air Force general has warned of a conflict with China as early as 2025 — most likely over Taiwan — and urged his commanders to push their units to achieve maximum operational battle readiness this year. In an internal memorandum that first emerged on social media on Friday, and was later confirmed as genuine by the Pentagon, Air Mobility Command Commander General Mike Minihan said that the main goal should be to deter “and, if required, defeat” China. “I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me we will fight in 2025,” Minihan said. Minihan said that Taiwan’s presidential election
DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM: Czech president-elect Petr Pavel said his nation stands firmly on the side of democracy and would boost cooperation with Taipei in all aspects Czech president-elect Petr Pavel spoke by telephone with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday, a highly unusual move given the lack of formal ties and a diplomatic coup for Taipei. Tsai spoke with Pavel for 15 minutes in a harmonious atmosphere, Presidential Office spokeswoman Lin Yu-chan (林聿禪) said, adding that Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) was also present during the conversation. Lin quoted Pavel as telling Tsai that Taiwan is a trustworthy partner, adding that the Czech Republic stands firmly on the side of democracy and supports Taiwan in maintaining a lively democratic system free from authoritarian coercion. The Czech Republic would
RSS