A Taichung food distributor has reportedly been selling glutinous rice balls (tangyuan, 湯圓) containing industrial dyes.
Taichung City Health Bureau staff along with the local prosecutors’ office investigated the local food distributor and uncovered two unmarked containers of dark-colored powder, the bureau said.
A worker at the premises surnamed Chang (張) allegedly confessed to using industrial dyes instead of food colorings in making the tangyuan, the bureau said.
Photo: Su Meng-chuan, Taipei Times
Chang reportedly told investigators that the tangyuan containing the toxic dyes were mostly sold in the traditional markets in the city’s Fengyuan District (豐原).
Under the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), the distributor could face up to seven years imprisonment and a fine of up to NT$80 million (US$2.5 million), prosecutors said.
The bureau said it ordered inspections last month ahead of the winter solstice — which this year is tomorrow — when people typically eat tangyuan, adding that investigators made random visits to several vendors and ran food safety tests.
The results of tests became available earlier this month and Rhodamine B was discovered in the samples taken from one vendor who sells about 18kg of tangyuan per week, the bureau said.
The bureau contacted the prosecutors’ office and a team made up of staff from the bureau, the prosecutors’ office and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) went to inspect the vendor’s premises yesterday, arriving to find Chang in the process of making tangyuan, the bureau said.
The distributor had increased production of tangyuan to between 60kg and 120kg per day, the majority of which was to be sold in Fengyuan’s traditional food and vegetable market, the bureau said.
The company reportedly told investigators that it had been using industrial dyes for the past 10 years because they gave a more vibrant and longer-lasting color.
The bureau said the distributor claimed to have stopped using the dyes since an inspection last month and is now using food coloring.
However, the inspection showed that industrial dyes were in the tangyuan and noodle dough being made yesterday.
Such dyes can cause lung, throat, nose and stomach problems if consumed in sufficient quantity, the bureau said.
Consumers should be cautious when buying food products with unnaturally bright colors, it said.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
RSS