Yuanshan (元山蛋品有限公司), an egg products firm, has been selling liquid egg products tainted with spoiled eggs, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
Officials from the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau and health officials from Changhua and Taoyuan counties, under the command of the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office, on Saturday launched an investigation of the company’s factories, the FDA said.
Spoiled eggs tainted with chicken excrement, eggshell pieces and maggots were found in liquid egg products at a factory in Taoyuan’s Pingjhen District (平鎮), the FDA said, adding that 1,620.5kg of the problematic products were sealed up and the factory ordered to suspend operations.
Photo: Chen Yun, Taipei Times
About 25.2 tonnes of expired liquid egg products were found and sealed at the company’s factory in Taoyuan’s Longtan District (龍潭), the Taoyuan Department of Public Health said, adding that it ordered the firm to recall all of its liquid egg products.
FDA Northern Center Deputy Director Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智) said the company has allegedly been purchasing spoiled eggs from egg farms and using the weekends to mix them with fresh eggs to make its products since 2016.
Records show that most of the tainted products were sold to restaurants and bakeries in Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli counties, the Taoyuan department said.
FDA Northern Center Director Chiu Hsiu-yi (邱秀儀) said the company had failed the Good Hygienic Practices requirements 17 times during agency inspections since 2014, but had always passed re-inspections and was not fined.
However, it was fined in June for salmonella contamination in its liquid egg white products, she said.
The company could be fined between NT$60,000 and NT$200 million (US$1,954 and US$6.51 million) for producing and storing expired egg products under the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法).
Prosecutors have information on where the spoiled eggs were purchased, and it would ask the Council of Agriculture to investigate whether the egg farms contravened the law, Cheng said.
The Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office said it seized account books and documents as well as the cellphones of the defendants — a father and son surnamed Hsiao (蕭) who run the company — and would summon the pair, as well as 15 others as witnesses to answer questions.
Additional reporting by CNA
US PUBLICATION: The results indicated a change in attitude after a 2023 survey showed 55 percent supported full-scale war to achieve unification, the report said More than half of Chinese were against the use of force to unify with Taiwan under any circumstances, a survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University found. The survey results, which were released on Wednesday in a report titled “Sovereignty, Security, & US-China Relations: Chinese Public Opinion,” showed that 55.1 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that “the Taiwan problem should not be resolved using force under any circumstances,” while 24.5 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disagreed with the statement. The results indicated a change in attitude after a survey published in “Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
‘MISGUIDED EDICT’: Two US representatives warned that Somalia’s passport move could result in severe retaliatory consequences and urged it to reverse its decision Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has ordered that a special project be launched to counter China’s “legal warfare” distorting UN Resolution 2758, a foreign affairs official said yesterday. Somalia’s Civil Aviation Authority on Wednesday cited UN Resolution 2758 and Mogadishu’s compliance with the “one China” principle as it banned people from entering or transiting in the African nation using Taiwanese passports or other Taiwanese travel documents. The International Air Transport Association’s system shows that Taiwanese passport holders cannot enter Somalia or transit there. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) protested the move and warned Taiwanese against traveling to Somalia or Somaliland
Four former Hong Kong opposition lawmakers jailed in the territory’s largest national security case were released yesterday after more than four years in prison, the first among dozens convicted last year to regain their freedom. Former legislators Claudia Mo (毛孟靜), Jeremy Tam (譚文豪), Kwok Ka-ki (郭家麒) and Gary Fan (范國威) were part of a group of 47 public figures — including some of Hong Kong’s best-known democracy advocates — who were charged with subversion in 2021 for holding an informal primary election. The case fell under a National Security Law imposed on the territory by Beijng, and drew international condemnation and warnings
RSS