Prosecutors yesterday said they have identified a company that is producing fake Kikkoman (
"We estimate that over 6,000 large-sized (1,600ml) bottles of Kikkoman soy sauce have been sold to restaurants and supermarkets, but not to convenience shops such as 7-Eleven," said Tseng Chiun-che (
"We are examining the fake soy sauce," he added. "If we find poisonous elements in it, the suspects will be charged with a heavier crime."
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUI, TAIPEI TIMES
He said the fake soy sauce probably contains chemical elements which can cause cancer.
Kikkoman is a well-known Japanese brand sauce company. It cooperates with Taiwan's Uni-President Group to establish President-Kikkoman Co (PKI) in Taiwan to produce and sell different kinds of sauces.
Investigators on Thursday simultaneously raided nine illegal factories nationwide and found more than 5,000 bottles of the knockoff condiment.
Prosecutors have questioned 12 suspects for making fake sauce, but did not release their names yesterday, pending the result of further investigation.
According to prosecutors, the suspects admitted they have sold more than 1,000 bottles of fake soy sauce to restaurants and supermarkets.
Prosecutors said they sold six fake bottles for NT$450, while their actual cost was lower than NT$200.
Prosecutors said the fake bottles look almost identical to the real ones, and that they are making an effort to recover the sham sauce that's already on the market.
Uni-President spokesman Simon Hung (
He said both Uni-President and Kikkoman were concerned the event would effect their products' sales.
Hung said the real Kikkoman soy sauce has a "PM" mark near the bottom, but the fake bottles have no such mark.
He said the company would purchase advertisements in today's Chinese-language newspapers to teach consumers how to distinguish real Kikkoman soy sauce bottles from the imposters.
The Ministry of Justice has made cracking down on consumer goods crimes a priority.
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