The nation’s largest duck-blood pudding manufacturer, Shuang Peng (雙鵬), allegedly adulterated duck-blood pudding and pig-blood cake meant for human consumption with animal-feed-grade poultry blood, leading prosecutors to detain the company’s general manager, surnamed Peng (彭), yesterday.
The New Taipei City Public Health Department cooperated with the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office to inspect Shuang Peng’s factory in New Taipei City’s Shulin District (樹林) and confiscated 24.3 tonnes of poultry blood on Thursday, the department said.
As the company provides about 70 percent of the nation’s duck-blood pudding, it is highly likely that all the major distributors and traditional markets in the nation have been affected, the department’s deputy director Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said.
Photo: CNA
The company sold the allegedly tainted products to hot-pot restaurants and night-market vendors nationwide, the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Food and Drug Administration said, adding that it had ordered all the firm’s downstream companies to pull products using Shuang Peng’s blood.
The department ordered Shuang Peng to halt its operations and recalled all its products, the department said.
The company had collected and mingled blood gathered from chickens, ducks and geese alike, which might have been contaminated with feathers, urine and excrement, making the contaminated blood fit only for animals, department director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) said.
The company sold the processed tainted duck-blood pudding under the name of “water blood pudding” — a food category descriptor that encompasses various poultry blood products — to bypass detailed ingredient descriptions, Lin Kuan-chen said.
The company had reportedly collected tainted poultry blood from nine major slaughterhouses in Changhua County, Yunlin County and Taoyuan via a subsidiary feed manufacturer called Sheng Wan, according to the prosecutors’ statement.
The Taichung Department of Health subsequently launched massive inspections of eateries along Gongyi Road (公益路) in downtown Taichung, including four famous hot-pot restaurants featuring duck-blood pudding: Akuan, Wulao, Old Sichuan and Tripod King.
Meanwhile, the Taipei Department of Health said that it had ordered companies using Shuang Peng’s products to halt production and pull the products off the shelves.
Although boiling could disinfect adulterated duck-blood pudding that might have been contaminated with germs or even avian influenza viruses, biotoxins, heavy metals and residual antibiotics would not be removed, which could affect people’s health, Taipei Veterans General Hospital toxicologist Yang Chen-chang (楊振昌) said.
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