Amid growing public indignation over the third adulterated cooking oil scandal to be uncovered in a year, the National Federation of Teachers’ Unions yesterday filed a lawsuit against former health minister Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) and the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s entire staff for “causing catastrophes due to negligence of duty.”
The lawsuit was filed with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office by federation president Chang Hsu-cheng (張旭政), days after the union renewed its call for a nationwide boycott of all products and service provided by Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團) and its subsidiaries.
Two of Ting Hsin’s subsidiaries — Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial Co (頂新製油實業) and Cheng I Food Co (正義股份) — have been accused of knowingly adulterating dozens of their cooking oil products with animal feed oil either imported from Vietnam or made locally.
Photo: Chen Wei-tsung, Taipei Times
“As a ministry in charge of governing the safety of people’s food and medicines, the ministry was already perceived by the public as guilty of dereliction of duty in November last year, when cooking oil producer Chang Chi Foodstuff Factory Co (大統長基) was discovered to have been blending its olive oil products with cheaper cottonseed oil and using the banned food additive copper chlorophyllin to give them a visible green appearance for the past seven years,” Chang said.
In a development that Chang said “astonished him,” he added that the case was followed by two more adulterated oil scandals in less than a year, with one breaking last month that involved cooking oil manufacturer Chang Guann Co (強冠企業) and the most recent erupting earlier this month, implicating Ting Hsin Oil and Cheng I.
Chang Guann allegedly mixed numerous lard-based cooking oil products with recycled waste oil collected from restaurant fryers, as well as animal feed oil imported from Hong Kong.
“What is more absurd is that neither of the two ensuing oil scandals were discovered by the ministry,” he said.
“The case involving Chang Guann was brought to light by a farmer who handed over to the police evidence he had collected on the company’s [alleged] irregularities. And the ministry only knew about Cheng I and Ting Hsin Oil’s [alleged] illegal use of animal feed oil after it was discovered by the nation’s investigative agencies,” Chang said.
Chang said that the three oil scares have not only taken a severe toll on the nation’s economy and international reputation, but have caused potentially permanent damage to public health.
“I have no idea what the hell the ministry’s officials have been doing all this time,” he said, urging prosecutors to hold Chiu and the entire ministry accountable for the nation’s seemingly endless plague of oil scandals.
Separately yesterday, a number of candidates in the Taipei and New Taipei City councilor races also filed a malfeasance lawsuit with the district court against Chiu, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) over the latest adulterated oil scare.
“I myself own a food stall at Taipei’s Shilin Night Market and my business has dropped by 30 percent since the adulterated oil scandals,” independent Taipei City councilor candidate Wang Yi-kai (王奕凱) said.
Wang attributed the nation’s continual food scares to “sloppy inspections” by local health authorities, and criticized Ma’s decision to halve the import duties on imported lard and pig fat.
Ma’s move, which reportedly aims to prevent major price fluctuations in lard-based oils if the oil scares cause a short supply, is a “temporary fix rather than a long-term solution,” Wang said.
Rain is to increase from Wednesday morning as Severe Tropical Storm Kong-Rey approaches, with sea warnings to be issued as early as tomorrow afternoon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. As of 8am, Kong-Rey was 1,050km east-southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) heading in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, CWA Forecast Center Director Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said. Rainfall is to increase from Wednesday morning, especially in northern Taiwan and Yilan County, he said. A sea warning is possible from tomorrow afternoon, while a land warning may be issued on Wednesday morning, he added. Kong-Rey may intensify into a moderate typhoon as it passes
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Taiwan yesterday issued warnings to four Chinese coast guard vessels that intruded into restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). The four China Coast Guard ships were detected approaching restricted waters south of Kinmen at around 2 pm yesterday, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu Branch said in a statement. The CGA said it immediately deployed four patrol boats to closely monitor the situation. When the Chinese ships with the hull numbers "14512," "14609," "14603" and "14602" separately entered the restricted waters off Fuhsing islet (復興嶼), Zhaishan (翟山), Sinhu (新湖) and Liaoluo (料羅) at 3 pm, the Taiwanese patrol
MUCH-NEEDED: After China demonstrated its capabilities to deploy vertical launching systems, Taiwan needs air defense systems such as NASAMS, a defense expert said The US’ approval of exports of three advanced air defense missile systems to Taiwan signified NATO’s goodwill toward the nation, a Taiwanese defense expert said. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency on Friday announced the US$1.16 billion sale of the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) and the US$828 million sale of AN/TPS-77 and AN/TPS-78 radar turnkey systems. The NASAMS is a network that uses ground-launched Air Intercept Missile (AIM)-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) to intercept hostile aircraft, drones and cruise missiles. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), director of defense strategy and resources at the state-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said