Ting Hsin shuts down factories after new allegations

[BalanceOfPower]

Ting Hsin shuts down factories after new allegations

Boycott against Ting Hsin and Wei Chuan expands, China stops juice import

Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Central News Agency (2014-10-11 21:03:13)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Ting Hsin International chief Wei Ying-chung announced Saturday the factories involved in the latest cooking oil scandal would be shut down after allegations the company imported animal feed oil from Vietnam.

It was Wei’s first public appearance since he resigned from the chairmanship of three Ting Hsin affiliates involved in the scandal earlier in the week. The group faces consumer boycotts and a ban on its products at schools after it was named in three cooking oil scandals within the past year.

Wei offered apologies in Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese and broke down several times. He apologized to consumers, company staff, shareholders and the government, and even to his brothers. Wei is one of four brothers who run a vast empire which does not only include prominent food brands, but also Taipei 101.

Wei announced the closure of the Cheng I Food Co. and Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial factories, but the 260 employees affected would be able to work at other group locations. The two company CEOs, who flanked him at the news conference, would resign, he said. According to reports, whoever would succeed Wei as the new chairman of group companies would not be surnamed Wei but be a professional manager.

In an online statement, former Democratic Progressive Party Chairman Su Tseng-chang condemned the news conference as an empty show and accused Wei of trying to escape his responsibility.

The latest allegation against the group was that its Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Industrial Co. had imported oil from Vietnam for animal feed but changed the labels to make it appear fit for human consumption, a change which could lead to forgery charges.

The report was confirmed by Vietnam’s Ministry of Trade and Industry after a request from Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration. A total of 358 tons of lard at a facility in Pingtung County were being checked by food inspectors, but some had already been turned into ten types of cooking oil, reports said.

The Vietnamese product had been used to manufacture 31 types of lard oil last year and 23 types this year, the FDA said. Ting Hsin was the major importer of the oil products into Taiwan and had done so for several years. Because cooking oil could be sold for a year, all related products dating back to last October would have to be removed from sale, up to an estimated total of 3,646 metric tons.

The scandal even expanded to China Saturday with reports that the city of Xiamen had stopped and returned 19,650 boxes of Ting Hsin’s Wei Chuan fruit juices and drinks worth an estimated NT$4.8 million (US$160,000). The company said it was setting up a council of food safety advisers and a second test laboratory in Yunlin County.

At a special news conference Saturday morning, Premier Jiang Yi-huah said the government crackdown would not spare any violators, how large their market share or size might be, and that if the action provoked a lard oil shortage, he would open up the market to imports.

Jiang warned the removal of tainted products from shelves could drastically expand next week from the more than 300 food companies which were believed to have bought and used tainted oil from Cheng I. A ream of Taiwan’s most prominent food brands have admitted they bought edible oil from the company, especially after its main rival, Chang Guann Co., was found last month to have sold oil made from recycled kitchen waste.

The aim of the government campaign was to make sure that not a single food safety violator would be left, Jiang said. He came under fire after it was revealed that lawmakers had questioned the origin of Cheng I oil two weeks before the scandal broke, while Jiang at the time said there seemed to be no problem.

“What needs to be sealed, will be sealed, what needs to be raided, will be raided, who needs to be detained, will be detained,” Jiang said.

Prosecutors from Changhua County reportedly raided Wei’s premises in the area and the Neipu factory in Pingtung County. During the day, there were contradictory reports about whether the businessman had been barred from leaving the country. The Changhua prosecutors reportedly denied they had issued such an order, but later they found out that his movements were already restricted because he was listed as a defendant in last year’s food safety scandal.

Both private citizens and local governments have launched boycott campaigns against the group. Schools in two thirds of Taiwan’s cities and counties decided not to buy or sell products from Ting Hsin or from its high-profile Wei Chuan Foods Corp. affiliate.

The boycott also hit associated brands such as Matsusei supermarkets, Dicos fastfood and Lin Feng Ying dairy products, while other companies hastened to explain that Ting Hsin and Wei Chuan were not shareholders. Cable stations reported that the actions did not seem to affect the Taipei 101 shopping mall since most visitors were unaware of Ting Hsin’s stake in the iconic building.

 

[BalanceOfPower]

Three men involved in Ting Hsin oil scandal detained

Central News Agency
2014-10-12 05:51 PM

Taipei, Oct. 12 (CNA) Three individuals, including a division chief at Changhua County-based Ting Hsin Oil & Fat Industrial Co., were detained Sunday on suspicion of committing fraud and violating food safety regulations in a snowballing cooking oil scandal.

The three are Ting Hsin Oil & Fat quality chief Tsai Chun-yung, retired Ting Hsin Oil & Fat general manager Chang Mei-feng, and Yang Chen-yi, who owned the trading company that sold oil for animal feed to the edible oil producer.

Ting Hsin Oil & Fat, a subsidiary of the Ting Hsin International Group, produced and sold 54 lard and lard-based edible oil products, and some or all of them may have contained animal feed oil. The Changhua District Court approved the detention request by district prosecutors, who launched an investigation into the three men after raiding Ting Hsin Oil & Fat's edible oil processing factory in Pingtung County.

During the search of the facility, prosecutors seized documents that included detailed quality check results, export/import declarations and data from tests on oils stored in edible oil tanks. According to the Food and Drug Administration under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ting Hsin Oil & Fat imported 3,216 tons of oil from Vietnam since 2012, and none of it may have been suitable for human consumption.

The administration said Friday it was notified by Vietnam's Ministry of Trade and Industry that the lard and beef tallow imported by Ting Hsin Oil & Fat from Vietnamese exporter Dai Hanh Phuc was oil used in animal feed and not for use in edible oils. The oil, however, was declared on the import declaration form as for "human use" and was backed by a certificate provided by the exporter from Vinacontrol, a private certification company in Vietnam, stating it was "fit for human use."

Government authorities, who have been criticized for not seeing through the alleged deceit, said they have inspected imported oils at a higher rate than in other countries but noted that the tests done cannot detect whether the edible oils were adulterated or fake. Feng Ruenn-lan, director of the administration's Center for Regional Administration, was cited as saying in Sunday's United Evening News that border inspectors randomly tested one of Ting Hsin Oil & Fat's seven imported oil shipments this year.

The tests found no abnormal readings for heavy metals, antioxidants and aflatoxins in the shipment, Feng said, but the test methods, which are used globally, could not tell if the oil was for animal or human consumption. The Ting Hsin Oil & Fat scandal was the latest blow for the embattled Taiwan-based Ting Hsin Group, best known for its Master Kong brand of instant noodles.

Another edible-oil producing subsidiary, Cheng I Food Co., was found last week to have also been mixing oil for animal feed in its lard-based cooking oils, and flagship food brand Wei Chuan Foods Corp. was found last month to be selling oils containing fats extracted from kitchen and industrial waste. The Ting Hsin Group controls an estimated 80 percent share of the lard and lard-based oil market in Taiwan.

(By Wu Jhe-hao and Elizabeth Hsu)

 

[BalanceOfPower]

Ting Hsin criticized for failing to check on Vietnam supplier

Central News Agency
2014-10-12 06:31 PM

Taipei, Oct. 12 (CNA) Taiwan's food and drug regulator on Sunday criticized Ting Hsin International Group, a food giant mired in a cooking oil scandal, for failing to learn more about the Vietnam supplier from which a subsidiary purchased lard and beef tallow.

Chiang Yu-mei, acting director-general of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said at a press conference that Ting Hsin subsidiary Ting Hsin Oil & Fat Industrial Co. has imported oil from Vietnam since 2012 but never sent people to Vietnam to check the supplier. That is not the attitude that a good and reputable company should have, Chiang said of the company.

Chiang stressed that food makers are responsible for checking on their suppliers to ensure the safety of their products. The criticism implied that Ting Hsin may not have known it was importing oil for use in animal feed rather than for human consumption, a contention the company itself has made, pointing to certificates from the Vietnamese exporter saying the product was "fit for human use." But there are also suspicions that the company knew what it was doing, and a court on Sunday ordered that three executives involved in the procurement and quality control of the imported oil be detained on suspicion of committing fraud.

Legal sources of lard in Taiwan are insufficient to meet the demand for lard-based oils, forcing producers to rely on imported edible oils or raw materials, many of which are sourced from Vietnam. The Ting Hsin International Group, best known for its instant noodle brand Master Kong, has been the target of public outrage since another of its subsidiaries, Cheng I Food Co., was exposed on Oct. 8 as having sold lard mixed with animal feed oil not meant for human consumption.

The discovery Friday that Ting Hsin Oil & Fat was apparently involved in a similar scheme only compounded the woes of the parent company and its flagship food company, Wei Chuan Foods Corp. Local governments and consumer groups around Taiwan have begun a boycott of the group's products and brands.

(By Lung Pei-ning and Christie Chen)