Master Kong owner sorry for food scandal
Print Edition
The owner of the Master Kong instant noodle brand apologized yesterday after its Taiwan units were ordered to recall tens of thousands of bottles of adulterated cooking oil.
Ting Hsin International Group made the public apology amid a string of scandals involving several major cooking oil retailers that have rocked the island.
The group was ordered to remove from shelves 21 types of cooking oil that were tainted with copper chlorophyllin.
According to Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration, the agent can be added to some processed foods but is banned from use in cooking oil.
The group was fined 3 million New Taiwan dollars (US$102,000) for failing to provide health officials with the list of adulterated oil items during their recent check of a plant.
“We apologize to the shareholders and the general public for the unrest caused to you,” Wei Yin-chun, chairman of the group’s Taiwan unit Wei Chuan Foods Corp, said while bowing along with his brother Wei Yin-heng and two other group executives during a press conference in Taipei.
But Wei Yin-chun insisted that they had not been aware the oil, purchased from Changchi Foodstuff Factory Co which is at the center of the snowballing food scandals, contained the banned coloring agent until recently.
Despite the apology, health officials said the group could face another fine of NT$300 million if an investigation showed it had known beforehand the oil from Changchi was laced with the banned agent.
Wei also said that all the oil used by Master Kong to produce instant noodles on China’s mainland was palm oil from Malaysia. Master Kong is the biggest instant noodle brand on the mainland, selling hundreds of thousands of packets a year.
The Changchi food scandal surfaced last month after it was found to have adulterated olive oil with cheap cottonseed oil and the banned coloring agent for many years. Chairman Kao Chen-li has been indicted on charges of violating the food safety law and making huge illegal profits through false labeling.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
