Tea store chain Stornaway (英國藍) was yesterday ordered to temporarily close all of its branches nationwide pending a further test of its tea products, following the discovery that three types of tea leaves it sold contained excessive pesticide residue.
The order was issued by the Tainan City Government’s Department of Health after Stornaway notified the agency earlier yesterday that samples of 330kg Earl Grey tea leaves, 150kg Ceylon tea leaves and 240kg Darjeeling tea leaves it purchased from Taipei-based Chou Chieh Trading Co (洲界貿易) last month were found to contain pesticide residue in a recent test it authorized a third party to conduct.
“In light of the latest findings, the department has instructed other local health bureaus to oversee the temporary shutdown of all of the chain’s 96 branches in the nation. All relevant tea products have been pulled from shelves,” Pharmaceutical Affairs Section official Cho Ching-ching (卓金津) said.
Photo: CNA
Cho said the help of the Taipei City Government’s Department of Health and the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office has been requested in identifying the source of Chou Chieh’s allegedly tainted tea leaves.
The shutdown order came after the Miaoli County Government’s Public Health Bureau on April 14 found that Stornaway’s rosebuds — also bought from Chou Chieh — were contaminated with 11 types of pesticides, including dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), the so-called “poison of the century.”
A preliminary investigation showed that the tainted rosebuds were part of a 4.5 tonne shipment imported by Kaohsiung-based Yuen Yeeh Enterprise Co (原宜貿易) from Iran in August last year.
Taipei Department of Health Food and Drug Division director Wang Ming-li (王明理) said the department has confirmed that Chou Chieh was the sole ingredient supplier of all of Stornaway’s black tea products.
“According to data from the city’s food ingredient platform, the three kinds of contaminated black tea leaves were imported from Sri Lanka,” Wang said, adding that the agency yesterday confiscated 20 boxes weighing 600kg of the black tea leaves from Chou Chieh’s office on Liaoning Street.
Wang said Stornaway’s headquarters have been unreachable since it faxed the test results to Tainan’s health bureau, and that all of its 26 branches in Taipei were closed yesterday.
Taipei’s Department of Health urged food companies to immediately suspend manufacturing and sales of their products if they are found to pose a threat to public safety.
“Violators could face a fine ranging from NT$30,000 to NT$3 million [US$962.37 to NT$96,237] in accordance with the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法),” it said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
RSS