Producer fined for selling adulterated rice
Central News Agency
2015-07-13 10:43 PM
Taipei, July 13 (CNA) A Yunlin County rice producer was fined NT$4.03 million (US$129,800) on Monday for mixing Vietnamese rice into two products sold as "Taiwanese rice" to a Taoyuan manufacturer and for refusing to cooperate with investigators.
The producer, known in Chinese as Chang's Agricultural Processing Factory, was suspected of using Vietnamese rice in the long-grained and round-grained glutinous "Made in Taiwan" rice it sold to Chia Ho Rice Factory in Taoyuan.
The Agriculture and Food Agency (AFA) under the Council of Agriculture began investigating the case on June 10, and it asked the owner of the rice processing company, Chang Hsin-chieh, to provide an explanation to the agency's central Taiwan office in Taichung by 6:15 p.m. on June 18.
Chang did not appear until 8 p.m. that day and insisted that everything he sold to the Taoyuan company was supplied by upstream Taiwanese vendors. He then demanded that the AFA re-check its findings.
The AFA asked experts at National Taiwan University to use DNA mapping technology to confirm the contents of the two suspected products.
In a report released Monday, the NTU experts found that 20 percent and 12.5 percent of the contents of the two products sold, respectively, were Vietnam-grown glutinous rice grains.
Under Taiwan's Food Management Act, each violation is subject to a fine of NT$2 million, meaning that the rice processor was fined a total of NT$4 million for adulterating its rice.
Officials imposed an additional fine of NT$30,000 for Chang's uncooperative attitude, in accordance with a special provision in the Food Management Act.
(By Yang Shu-min and S.C. Chang)
