The Tainan City Government health bureau yesterday said tests on breakfast stores’ hamburger patties showed about 40 percent were made of mixed meat, and further investigations are to be carried out at meat manufacturers involving alleged mislabeling.
The bureau’s report on 108 hamburger patties, collected from 81 breakfast stores in Tainan over six months showed that about 47 percent of “pork patties” contained beef, 50 percent of “chicken patties” contained pork, and about 30 percent of “beef patties” contained pork.
Among the breakfast stores examined, 70 percent were individual stores and 30 percent were branches of breakfast chain stores.
The bureau did not disclose the list of store names.
Bureau Deputy Director-General Huang Wen-Jeng (黃文正) said the samples were collected by bureau staff acting as consumers, not through a formal inspection procedure, adding that further tests were required and that fines would not be imposed on patty manufacturers.
Food and Drug Administration Southern Taiwan Management Center Director Liu Fang-ming (劉芳銘) said the bureau has been asked to investigate if the meat in the patties are intentionally mixed or if it is contaminated during the cooking process, and if patty manufacturers are mislabeling products.
If manufacturers are found to be intentionally mixing meat in the patties, while fail to reveal ingredients on product labels, they could face fines from NT$40,000 to NT$4 million, (US$1,212 to US$121,205) according to the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), Liu said.
If accidental cross-contamination is found during the manufacturing process, patty manufacturers are to be given a deadline to improve their production process before facing fines from NT$60,000 to NT$200 million if they fail to resolve the problem, he added.
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