The Taichung City Health Bureau yesterday said it would investigate a restaurant’s claim that expired ingredients found in its kitchen were for employee training, after the high-end Japanese barbecue restaurant was on Sunday reported to have allegedly used expired beef and other ingredients.
The Taichung Office of Food and Drug Safety on Sunday confirmed that Wagyu Emperor (和牛Emperor) — which specializes in upscale yakiniku (Japanese grilled meat), with a menu that features a single dinner set for NT$3,900 (US$120.45) — had expired ingredients in its kitchen.
After receiving a tip-off from a former restaurant employee that the grill used expired beef, the office sent personnel to inspect the restaurant on Friday and found expired beef and other ingredients, it said in a statement.
Photo courtesy of Taichung Office of Food and Drug Safety
The expired ingredients included frozen beef, miso, cold noodles and fermented bean paste, some of which were a week to five months past their expiration dates, it said.
The ingredients have been sealed, and after notifying the manager, the restaurant is to be fined NT$60,000 to NT$200 million for contravening the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), the office said.
Wagyu Emperor on Sunday night apologized on Facebook for the incident and for having an insufficient understanding of food safety laws and regulations by keeping expired beef in one of its freezers.
It wrote that the expired frozen beef and ingredients were for “employee training to improve service quality,” and that it had kept the expired meat in a separate freezer from the beef served to customers.
“The meat served during opening hours is absolutely not the expired meat mentioned in reports,” it said, adding that media reports were inaccurate, and that it would take legal action against false reporting.
However, Taichung Health Bureau Director Tseng Tzu-chan (曾梓展) said that during its inspection, some expired ingredients were found in areas where ingredients used for cooking were stored, leading inspectors to believe the restaurant was using expired ingredients in its dishes.
The expired ingredients included 18 boxes (219 pieces) of beef (three to five months past expiration), 11 boxes of miso (two to four months past expiration), two bottles each of Japanese and Korean fermented bean pastes (both two months past expiration), 24 boxes and 60 packs of cold noodles (expired by a week), two bottles of sea kelp broth, two bottles of concentrated honey lemonade, and two bottles of concentrated pomegranate drink, he said.
Regarding the restaurant’s claim that the expired ingredients were for “employee training,” Tseng said the bureau would investigate the case for clarification.
“We highly suspect that claim,” he said, adding that it would impose a heavy fine based on each expired item, as well as offer a cash reward to the whistle-blower.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and