Wholesale club Costco Taiwan was yesterday singled out by the Taichung City Government’s Health Bureau after a sample of ice cream sold by its Taichung branch was found to have an excessive bacteria count.
The sample of the “Hokkaido ice cream” (北海道鮮奶霜淇淋) was collected on June 30 from the first-floor food court. The sample had an aerobic plate count of 110,000 colony-forming units per milliliter (CFU/ml), more than 10 times the maximum permissible level of 10,000 CFU/ml.
“The product could have been contaminated by condensation that built up around the ice cream machine’s dispensing outlet, due to improperly sanitized equipment,” the bureau said.
Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times
The bureau said the branch passed a retest after being requested to make improvements within a statutory period, returning a bacterial count of 850 CFU/ml.
The ice cream was the only deficient product among 40 similar items from supermarkets, convenience stores and beverage shops tested by the bureau between June 9 and June 22.
IKEA’s Taichung branch, which in October last year was found using expired ingredients to manufacture its ice cream, passed the test.
The bureau also tested for preservatives in 28 rice-based noodles at traditional markets, noodle stalls and supermarkets across the city.
Of those, three failed to meet the national standards due to excessive levels of sorbic acid, benzoic acid or dehydroacetic acid, the bureau said.
“The bureau has requested that all substandard products be removed from store shelves, while holding their manufacturers accountable and issuing fines ranging from NT$30,000 to NT$3 million [US$951 to US$95,147] in accordance with the Food Safety and Sanitation Act (食品安全衛生管理法),” it said.
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