Food inspectors find expiry date fraud
Taiwan News, Staff Writer
2014-11-19 05:46 PM
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Taoyuan County health authorities found food products with questionable expiry dates at two companies which had up to 4,000 clients, reports said Wednesday.
Manabe Coffee had been found to distribute coffee with an expiry date labeled as January 2018, even though coffee only remained fresh for three years at most, Taoyuan health officials said. Since the coffee was produced in October, it should bear the expiry date of October 2017, but the different expiry date could lead it to be described as a ”future food product,” a label often used by the media in describing food with erroneous expiry dates.
At Cheng Kang Provisions LLC, Ltd. based in Pateh, inspectors discovered that old expiry labels were replaced by new updated ones, allowing the company to continue delivery of its products to as many as 4,000 clients, including major retail outlets such as Px Mart, RT Mart, Taiwan Sugar Corporation, OK mart and Mr. Brown, officials said.
The products affected included a French-style vegetable sauce, frozen chicken legs and a series of cakes, according to the Taoyuan health service. Cheng Kang had also used expired taro essence to produce taro paste, reports said.
The practices continued for two years but had now been banned after their discovery, the Taoyuan authorities said. The violations could be punished by fines of up to NT$50 million (US$1.6 million), reports said.
Cheng Kang’s problems however, were not restricted to food safety issues. The company was also involved in illegal construction, unregistered activities, excess working hours and the illegal use of foreign labor, while it also had failed a fire safety test, the Taoyuan authorities said.
Prosecutors had been asked to take action and investigate the company, which sold more than 300 products to 4,000 clients, reports said.
