The Taipei District Prosecutors' Office on Tuesday decided that the relatives of six people who died as a result of a deadly food poisoning incident in March last year should receive a total of NT$10.8 million (US$327,466), setting a new record for compensation in a food safety case in Taiwan.
The six families have been approved to each receive NT$1.8 million as compensation for deaths connected to Polam Kopitiam, a Malaysian restaurant chain, in accordance with the Crime Victim Rights Protection Act (犯罪被害人權益保障法).
Photo: Kan Meng-lin, Taipei Times
The fatal food poisoning incident at the Polam Kopitiam branch in Taipei's Xinyi District (信義) resulted in 33 people coming down with severe food poisoning after eating flat rice noodles, prosecutors said.
In January, Polam Kopitiam's owner, surnamed Lee (黎), the manager of the Xinyi branch, surnamed Wang (王), two chefs, surnamed Chou (周) and Ho (胡), and an intern at the restaurant were indicted for negligent homicide, negligent injury and contraventions of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), prosecutors said that month.
A preliminary investigation by the Ministry of Health and Welfare determined that bongkrekic acid — a rare and deadly toxin detected in all the victims — caused the food poisoning, but was unable to say definitively where the acid came from.
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