The New Taipei City District Court on Thursday approved a motion filed by prosecutors to detain a meat vendor and hold her incommunicado on suspicion of fraud and contraventions of food safety laws, following accusations she sold pork falsely labeled as lamb.
The measure was taken to prevent the suspect, identified only by her family name, Yang (楊), from destroying evidence or colluding with others amid an ongoing investigation, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said.
Yang’s brother, who runs the meat stall with her at a market in New Taipei City’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), and their supplier, surnamed Chen (陳), were each released after questioning that day on bail of NT$200,000 and NT$100,000 respectively.
Photo courtesy of the New Taipei City Department of Health
Working in collaboration with police and health authorities, raids were carried out at multiple locations on Wednesday and Thursday, which included Yang’s residence and Chen’s warehouse in Wugu District (五股), during which smartphones, laptops and account books were seized, prosecutors said.
The case first caught the public’s attention after the CTWant news site reported earlier in the week that the Yang siblings had allegedly been selling pork falsely labeled as lamb at their meat stall.
Based on an investigation, prosecutors said that since 2020, the Yangs had been sourcing their meat from Chen, who runs an office in Banciao District (板橋) and a warehouse in Wugu.
Chen would allegedly provide them with either lamb mixed with pork, or pork purposely labeled as lamb, which the Yangs would then knowingly sell as lamb, they said.
The three suspects are being investigated for fraud and other offenses under the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), prosecutors said.
The New Taipei City Government’s Department of Health said it had ordered Yang and Chen to suspend their business operations pending an investigation.
In a statement, the department said it had received a complaint regarding the alleged fraud from a member of the public on Monday, and it had sent inspectors to visit the accused vendor the following day, but they discovered the Yangs had already sold out of meat.
The vendor provided certificates of origin and other documents from its supplier vouching for the product’s authenticity, said Yang Shu-chin (楊舒秦), chief of the department’s Food and Drug Division.
Inspectors also visited the warehouse in Wugu that belongs to Chen, where they took samples of the meat to test, Yang Shu-chin said.
Members of the public are encouraged to report illegal activities, the department said.
Businesses contravening the law would be severely penalized to uphold food safety standards, it added.
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