A well-known, century-old Taipei shop that sells smoked shark meat has been cited for poor sanitation after the Taipei Department of Health yesterday conducted a surprise inspection and gave the shop three days to improve its food hygiene.
The Chinese-language Mirror Media weekly magazine reported that A Hua Smoked Shark Shop in the Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area had been preparing its food in unsanitary conditions and food samples sent for examination by the health department showed a bacterial count 22 times higher than the legal limit.
The report featured photographs secretly taken outside the shop’s kitchen that show the shop owner and workers wearing sandals and handling meat on a greasy and dirty floor.
It also reported that several mouse traps and cages were placed near the kitchen and showed a photograph with a rat stuck in a trap with the caption saying that the rat was still making noises when the photograph was taken.
The shop owner, surnamed Kuo (郭), said the store handles shark meat on cutting boards, not on the floor, and that the photograph of the rat could have been set up.
The examination of the shark meat could have been done days after it was purchased, Kuo said.
The shop owner said that the meat is cooked until it is well-done, but refused reporters access to the kitchen.
The health department said it found that the shop and its factory had many sanitation problems, including food being handled on the floor, unrefrigerated fresh ingredients and dirty floors and walls.
The shop has been asked to improve conditions before tomorrow, or it could face a fine of between NT$60,000 and NT$200 million (US$1,881 and US$6.27 million).
Department Food and Drugs Division Director Wang Ming-li (王明理) said the agency has also collected raw meat and processed meat samples for examination, adding that the results would be available in about 10 to 14 days.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
BACK TO WINTER: A strong continental cold air mass would move south on Tuesday next week, bringing colder temperatures to northern and central Taiwan A tropical depression east of the Philippines could soon be upgraded to be the first tropical storm of this year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the next cold air mass is forecast to arrive on Monday next week. CWA forecaster Cheng Jie-ren (鄭傑仁) said the first tropical depression of this year is over waters east of the Philippines, about 1,867km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), and could strengthen into Tropical Storm Nokaen by early today. The system is moving slowly from northwest to north, and is expected to remain east of the Philippines with little chance of affecting Taiwan,
RSS