The Taipei District Court on Wednesday ruled in favor of snack food producer Kuai Kuai Co (乖乖) in a lawsuit arising from a tainted oil scandal, ordering Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial Co (頂新製油實業) to pay NT$9.8 million (US$346,829) in compensation for revenue loss and expenditure resulting from product recalls.
The ruling can be appealed.
Kuai Kuai filed the lawsuit in 2017 seeking compensation after having to recall two snack products, following a consumer health scare from a series of adulterated food and tainted oil scandals in 2013 and 2014, embroiling a number of food material suppliers and end producers, including Ting Hsin Oil and Wei Chuan Foods Corp (味全食品), both members of the food conglomerate Ting Hsin International Group (頂新國際集團).
The district court cited the guilty rulings against Ting Hsin Oil in other lawsuits, which found the company in serious contravention of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法).
Kuai Kuai officials said Ting Hsin Oil had breached its contract by supplying imported animal feed-grade oil from Vietnam that was not approved for human consumption, which ended up in the company’s snack products.
Health authorities in late 2014 ordered the recall of food items containing tainted oil ingredients, including Kuai Kuai’s Five-Spices Flavored Corn Puffs (五香口味) and Peacock Fish Crackers (孔雀香酥脆香魚).
Wei Ying-chung (魏應充), the former chairman of Ting Hsin Oil and Wei Chuan Foods Corp, was in July 2017 found guilty of breaching the food safety act in one of the several lawsuits against him, and was sentenced to two years in prison, district court judges said in their ruling.
He was granted an early parole in December 2018.
Former Ting Hsin Oil general manager Chen Mao-chia (陳茂嘉) was also convicted and fined NT$3.59 million, the judges said.
Yesterday’s ruling ordering Ting Hsin Oil to pay NT$9.8 million in damages fell far short of the NT$58.72 million demanded by Kuai Kuai.
Kuai Kuai said the amount of damages it sought was based on its calculation of the loss of public trust in its products, as well as the cost of recalls, including transportation, handling, storage and disposal, and revenue loss.
Ting Hsin Oil released a statement saying it had provided new evidence and documents as proof that the oil it supplied came from healthy hogs and was suitable for human consumption.
It added that it would consult its lawyers to decide whether to appeal the decision.
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