A bee farmer yesterday threatened to sue the Consumers' Foundation (
"We'd like to see the Consumers' Foundation admit to having used the wrong method for testing the purity of honey and invite nationally certified analyzers to do the test again, or we will sue them for compensation for our losses," said Lai Chao-sien (
Accompanied by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (
"Hundreds of telephone calls poured in to our office to complain about our honey from 12pm to 7pm," he said. "I'm afraid export orders will soon be cancelled."
The Consumers' Foundation on Tuesday alleged that most honey consumed in Taiwan is not pure, with only two of 37 honey brands passing a recent purity test.
Among the 37 samples chosen randomly from supermarkets, traditional markets, shopping malls and organic product shops, the organization found that only two samples could be considered to be first or second-grade. One of the two that passed the test was from France.
The foundation said that some bee farmers add fructose to disguise their inferior mixtures as pure honey in order to reap bigger profits.
The honey produced by Lai's farm was found by the foundation to contain more than 5 percent cane sugar.
Claiming that the test methodology used by the foundation's analyzers was wrong, Lai said that it is fairly easy to tell real honey from the artificial stuff.
"If you add water to real honey and shake it, the liquid is turbid and the bubbles are fine. There are also many bubbles which last for a long time," Lai said, while demonstrating his water test in front of TV cameras.
Fake honey, though, is exactly the opposite, he said, adding that it is incorrect to test the purity of honey by using a toothpick, as the foundation did.
It is also easy to make phony honey, Lai said, by mixing fructose with pigment and essence.
While the retail price of genuine first-grade honey ranges between NT$200 and NT$400 per kilogram, imitation honey is priced from NT$50 to as much as NT$500 for unsuspecting buyers. The cost of fake honey, however, is only about NT$13 or NT$15 per kilogram, he said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Many Japanese couples are coming to Taiwan to obtain donated sperm or eggs for fertility treatment due to conservatism in their home country, Taiwan’s high standards and low costs, doctors said. One in every six couples in Japan is receiving infertility treatment, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data show. About 70,000 children are born in Japan every year through in vitro fertilization (IVF), or about one in every 11 children born. Few people accept donated reproductive cells in Japan due to a lack of clear regulations, leaving treatment in a “gray zone,” Taichung Nuwa Fertility Center medical director Wang Huai-ling (王懷麟)
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
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