Two Changhua businessmen were charged with using banned industrial dyes to adulterate food products, a case which prompted mass recalls in the nation’s latest food safety scandal, prosecutors said yesterday.
They sought a 20-year jail term for Lu Tien-jung (盧天榮) on charges of fraud and violation of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法). His son and business partner, Lu Chia-chien (盧嘉芊), may face an 18-year jail term on the same charges, in addition to a fine of NT$20 million (US$666,000) for each man.
The pair, who run Chien Hsin Enterprise (芊鑫實業社), which is at the center of the scandal, were charged with manufacturing and selling soybean emulsifiers tainted with dimethyl yellow and diethyl yellow dyes, which have been banned from food products since late 2008, the Changhua District Prosecutors’ Office said.
“The defendants caused public health hazards that are difficult to estimate and seriously damaged the national image. Their crimes are severe, but they have denied their intention to commit the crimes and shown no remorse,” it said in a statement.
As of Wednesday last week, about 80 tonnes of tainted products ranging from flavored dried tofu to instant noodles had been removed from shelves, according to health authorities.
The nation is reeling from a string of food safety scandals this year, which triggered public outrage and contributed to the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) massive defeat in last month’s local elections.
Hundreds of tonnes of products made with tainted oil, which the Chinese-language media refered to as “gutter oil,” were recalled in a scandal that surfaced in September.
That was followed by a mass recall one month later, when Taiwanese food giant Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團) was accused of selling for human consumption oil intended for animal feed.
Former Ting Hsin executive Wei Ying-chun (魏應充), one of the nation’s richest men, was taken into custody during the investigation into the scandal.
He was later hit with nearly 140 counts of fraud and faces a 30-year-jail term if convicted.
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