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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 FDA recalls eight more Ting Hsin Oil products
By Stacy Hsu / Staff reporter
The Food and Drug Administration （FDA） yesterday ordered a preventive recall of eight Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial Co （頂新製油實業） beef tallow products on suspicions that they were manufactured with oil imported from Vietnam-based Dai Hanh Phuc Co that might have been intended for animal feed.
“The administration has written four times to the Vietnamese authorities asking them to ascertain whether the 2,476 tonnes of beef tallow Ting Hsin Oil purchased from Dai Hanh Phuc over the past three years was meant for human or animal use,” FDA Acting Director-General Chiang Yu-mei （姜郁美） told a press conference.
As no response had been given as of press time yesterday, the FDA decided to pull the eight products — which were produced between June 21 last year and Oct. 11 — off shelves as a precautionary measure, Chiang said.
Chiang said a preliminary investigation showed that 14 companies nationwide purchased the eight potentially problematic beef tallow products.
These companies are required to complete recalling the products by midnight on Saturday or face a fine ranging from NT$60,000 to NT$50 million （US$2,000 to US$1.6 million）, Chiang said.
Ting Hsin Oil has already seen 54 of its lard-based products pulled off the shelves since Oct. 14 after the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Hanoi notified the administration that 871 tonnes of cooking lard the company imported from Dai Hanh Phuc Co this year was oil meant to be used in animal feed.
The office also quoted a statement from the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade as saying at the time that all oil exported from Dai Hanh Phuc Co was fit only for animal use.
The discovery prompted the FDA to launch a probe into the nature of other kinds of edible oil sold by the Vietnamese company to Ting Hsin Oil and two other Taiwanese firms, Cheng I Food Co （正義股份） and Yong Cheng Oil Feed （永成油脂）.
Import statistics show that between 2011 and last month, Ting Hsin Oil purchased 5,802 tonnes of oil from Dai Hanh Phuc, including 3,216 tonnes of lard, 2,476 tonnes of beef tallow and 110 tonnes of coconut oil, while Cheng I and Yong Cheng procured 157 tonnes of lard and 223 tonnes of coconut oil respectively.
During that period, Dai Hanh Phuc also exported 42,297 tonnes of animal feed-grade oil and 24,335 tonnes of non-oil products, such as fish meal, to the country, the statistics showed.
Asked whether the administration also intended to order Ting Hsin Oil’s coconut oil products off shelves, Chiang said that all 110 tonnes of coconut oil were purchased in 2012 and mixed into popsicles and coffee cream.
“As this type of oil has a relatively short shelf life of less than nine months, it is very unlikely that consumers will find products made from it on shelves today,” she added.
Chiang said that in the future, food or cooking oil companies suspected of using adulterated ingredients or those unfit for human consumption, and which then fail to submit proof of their innocence within two days, will be subject to a preventive recall of their potentially problematic products.
This will serve as a tentative measure before the FDA and the Ministry of Health and Welfare can reach a consensus on a permanent measure after further deliberations, Chiang said.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
Food and Drug Administration Acting Director-General Chiang Yu-mei announces at a press conference in Taipei yesterday that eight more Ting Hsin International Group products will be preventively recalled. Photo: CNA
