A food company has been caught adulterating olive oil it claimed was pure and imported from Europe with substandard oil from Chang Chi Foodstuff Factory Co, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in its latest report on edible oils.
Of the 76 oil products listed by the administration on Thursday as suspected of being substandard because their fatty acid composition did not meet national standards for edible oils, 24 have passed inspection and 40 confirmed as doctored so far, according to the report.
There are still 11 items pending further examination, while the manufacturer of the remaining product under investigation has been referred to the administration’s prosecution and investigation unit to determine the veracity of its claim that it has no more raw samples of its pure coconut oil left to submit for assessment.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Seven of the 40 substandard oil products were named yesterday, and six of those seven were olive oils from Greater Taichung-based Formosa Oilseed Processing Co that were being marketed as imports from Italy or Spain.
“The products are all labeled as ‘olive oil’ without specifying that they are mixed with other kinds of oil. The inspection showed that they are all adulterated with either sunflower seed oil, salad oil or canola oil,” said Chen Shu-hui (陳淑惠), an official with the Greater Taichung Health Bureau.
Two of Formosa Oilseed’s six adulterated olive oils are 50 percent Chang-chi oil and 50 percent canola oil, according to Chen.
“The other four do contain some olive oil from Italy or Spain, but they are still not 100 percent olive oil since they are blended with sunflower seed oil and salad oil,” she said.
The company is to be fined at least NT$15 million (US$510,000) for the six oil products and its “dishonesty when questioned by the authority,” Chen added.
“A NT$2 million fine will be levied for each of the adulterated oil products,” bureau Director Huang Mei-na (黃美娜) said, adding that a NT$3 million penalty is to be imposed for Formosa Oilseed’s dishonesty and unwillingness to cooperate with inspection staff.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to