中文
Home > Cross-Straits Exchanges

China Focus: New food scandal spurs public anger in Taiwan

( xinhuanet.com )

Updated: 2014-10-13

TAIPEI, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- While the dust has barely settled in Taiwan on last month's lard scandal, a new food scare has engulfed another of the island's most established companies, inciting huge public anger.

Ting Hsin International Group, known for a number of brands including Master Kong instant noodles, is in hot water after two of its subsidiaries were found to have used oil unfit for human consumption.

On Friday, the island's food and drug watchdog confirmed that the tallow imported from Vietnam by Ting Hsin Oil & Fat Industrial Co., a subsidiary of the massive conglomerate, was animal feed and not for human consumption.

Ting Hsin Oil & Fat has imported 871 tonnes of animal feed oil from Vietnam this year. The food and drug authority are still trying to find out when the company began buying animal feed oil from Vietnam and how much it has purchased in total.

Public health authorities have seized the inventories at Ting Hsin factories and over 250 tonnes of products had been removed from shelves as of Saturday.

This bout of fat fear comes just after Cheng I Food Co., a subsidiary Ting Hsin, was found to have sold lard mixed with animal feed oil on Thursday. Cheng I has been ordered to recall 68 products sold to at least 230 downstream buyers across the island.

Taiwanese consumers were already in the grip of dismay and anger since oil maker Chang Guann Co. was caught using kitchen waste and industrial grease in its lard in September.

Boycotts of Ting Hsin products are spreading. The Education Department in Taipei has banned all Ting Hsin products in schools and educational agencies across the city. Local governments in Taichung and Keelung have announced that they will no longer buy products from any of Ting Hsin's associates.

Saddened by the public clamor over food safety, Jiang Yi-huah, Taiwan's chief administrator, on Saturday ordered swift action against those involved in the latest outrage.

Wei Yin-chun, who resigned as chairman of Cheng I, Wei Chuan Foods Corp. and Ting Hsin Oil & Fat even before any of the current crop of wrongdoings came to light, apologized to the public at a press conference Saturday, and said he would take full responsibility.

Copyright ©2017 Fujian Provincial Publicity Department (International Publicity Office) All Rights Reserved.