McDonald’s said in a statement yesterday that it “respected legal procedures” and that consumers’ health and safety was its primary concern.
The company’s statement came after Taipei County Government Legal Affairs Bureau Director Chen Kun-jung (陳坤榮) yesterday confirmed that the Taipei County Government would fine McDonald’s between NT$60,000 and NT$300,000 according to Article 11 of the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) after cooking oil in two of its restaurants in Tucheng (土城) tested positive for arsenic on June 21.
The arsenic levels at the outlets were 1.038 parts per million (ppm) and 0.923ppm. The legal limit for arsenic in Taiwan is 0.1ppm.
PHOTO: HUANG MEI-CHU, TAIPEI TIMES
Chen had earlier told a press conference that he was “unhappy with McDonald’s reaction” on Sunday after news of the fine first broke.
“They should at least have communicated with us to see how this problem can be fixed, rather than make comments on TV,” Chen said. “I really don’t understand.”
The company’s statement insisted that its food and oil were safe.
“The Department of Health’s (DOH) latest tests on 183 samples of edible oil showed that our oil is safe and meets national standards,” the statement read.
“Restaurants can appeal before July 23 and demand a repeat test. If test results show their frying oil is safe, we will drop the fine,” said Hsu Ming-neng (許銘能), head of Taipei County Government’s health department.
Meanwhile, the DOH yesterday reminded fast food restaurants of their legal right to appeal if they failed tests.
“There is a 15-day mercy period for companies to issue an appeal,” DOH spokesman Wang Jet-chau (王哲超) said.
“If there is no appeal within 15 days, local governments will then issue the fines. The DOH fully endorses this course of action,” he said.
In related news, Taipei City Government’s Department of Health yesterday announced that packets of “Ovalteenies” had been found to be contaminated with the Bacillus cereus bacterium.
The bacterium can cause sickness and diarrhea.
The city government said it would fine Taiwan Hsin Lin Enterprise Co (欣臨) between NT$60,000 and NT$300,000 in accordance with Article 31-1 of the Act Governing Food Sanitation.
The department said the contamination was discovered on July 2.
Taiwan Hsin Lin has recalled a total of 304,128 packs of “Ovalteenies.”
The new discovery yesterday had nothing to do with the first problem.
“Something must be wrong with the manufacturing,” said Lin Chin-fu (林金富), head of the department’s Food and Drug Division.
Lin said that Taiwan Hsin Lin told them that “Ovalteenies” were made in Thailand and that they have told the manufacturer to avoid repeating the mistake.
He also urged the public to return “Ovalteenies” for a full refund.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AGENCIES
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
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