The Yunlin District Court on Wednesday last week sentenced the operator of an agricultural products company to six months in prison for knowingly selling chili powder tainted with Sudan III red dye, denying his request for a suspended sentence after he said that the banned substance would not harm human health.
The operator, surnamed Lin (林), runs Chan Gu Products Co (長谷農產) in Yunlin County’s Beigang Township (北港).
Chili powder sold by the company was found to contain Sudan red during a nationwide food safety scandal involving contaminated spices in 2024.
Photo: Taipei Times
According to the first-instance ruling, Lin imported 14 tonnes of hot-air-dried chili powder from Henan Province, China, in February 2022.
After hearing rumors from industry peers that Chinese chili powder might contain the banned industrial dye, Lin sent his products for testing in May 2023, with the results showing Sudan red levels four times higher than the legal limit, the ruling said.
Despite knowing that the powder was contaminated, Lin instructed employees to process and repackage the remaining 7,663kg of chili powder, which was then sold to downstream vendors and consumers, the ruling said.
The Yunlin County Public Health Bureau was notified by its counterpart in Tainan in late February 2024 that the products contained Sudan red, prompting an investigation by the Yunlin District Prosecutors’ Office.
Prosecutors searched the company’s premises on July 2, 2024.
The court on Wednesday last week found Lin guilty of contravening the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法).
He was sentenced to six months in prison and fined NT$300,000, while his company received a separate NT$300,000 fine.
The court said that, as a food business operator, Lin had a responsibility to strictly safeguard food safety, yet he showed a severe disregard for consumer health.
Taipei police today said they have launched an investigation into a well-known Pokemon Trading Card Game store in Taipei's Ximending (西門町) area after its sudden closure, with customers suspecting the owner absconded with up to NT$300 million (US$9.24 million). Little Sheep Card Shop (小羊卡牌社) in Wanhua District (萬華) — which specializes in card purchases and pre-orders, card grading services in Japan, submissions to the US and consignment sales — opened a physical storefront in January. Its three official Line groups, hosting up to 5,000 members each, and social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram all disappeared overnight, with the Ximending
Typhoon Dolphin could bring heavy rain to northern Taiwan later this week if it tracks closer to the nation after passing the Ryukyu Islands, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The CWA said forecast models agree the storm is to move toward the Ryukyu Islands through Thursday, but diverge over its path after that. One scenario has Typhoon Dolphin passing north of Taiwan, while another has it curving toward the Korean Peninsula if the Pacific high pressure system currently over the East China Sea and Taiwan weakens. Because of the uncertainty, it is still too
Taiwan could issue a sea warning for Typhoon Dolphin as early as Friday afternoon if the storm maintains its current westward track, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the center of the typhoon was about 2,590km east of Taipei and moving west at 21kph, potentially bringing hazardous conditions to waters surrounding Taiwan by Saturday. Dolphin is expected to reach waters south of the Ryukyu Islands around Saturday, but its track beyond that remains highly uncertain, CWA forecaster Lin Ping-yu (林秉煜) said. The typhoon could either continue moving westward or veer northward, Lin said. A westward track would bring
EXPANSIONISM: Taiwan has established a cross-agency mechanism to share its experience with other nations to help build a united front against China, Joseph Wu said National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) has accused China of using its coast guard and other official vessels to threaten not only Taiwan, but the broader Indo-Pacific region. “The threat posed by China is toward the whole region,” Wu said in an English-language interview with Nikkei Asia published yesterday. The entire First Island Chain, stretching from Japan southward through Taiwan to the Philippines and Malaysia, is facing increasing maritime aggression, he said. Taiwan’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems have detected a significant increase in Chinese official vessel activity in the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait, the western Pacific and the South
RSS