Ting Hsin sorry for slow recall of adulterated oils
Wed, Nov 06, 2013
By Camaron Kao / Staff reporter
Food manufacturer Ting Hsin
International Group (頂新集團) yesterday apologized for its slow response in recalling
21 oil products it made using adulterated oil from Chang Chi Foodstuff Factory
Co (大統長基).
Ting Hsin only recalled the 21
products — sold under the Wei Chuan (味全) brand — on Sunday, 19 days after Chang Chi’s oil
was discovered to contain illicit substances.
“We will take full
responsibility for the incident and spare no effort to protect our customers,”
Ting Hsin chairman Wei Ying-chun (魏應充) said at a press conference.
Wei said he had not known that
Chang Chi’s oil contained the illegal substance copper chlorophyllin until
Chang Chi chairman Kao Cheng-li (高振利) confessed to prosecutors on Saturday.
Ting Hsin said the price of
Chang Chi’s oil was not so unreasonably low as to arouse suspicion. The
adulterated oil cost NT$93 per liter, which is only slightly lower than the
average wholesale price of NT$95 to NT$100 per liter for imported oil, Ting Hsin
said.
The company purchased the oil
from Chang Chi instead of from manufacturers abroad because it only uses a
relatively small quantity of 30 tonnes a year to make its products, it said.
Ting Hsin subsidiary Wei Chuan
Foods Corp is to give NT$50 million (US$1.7 million) in refunds to customers
who bought the 21 products, Wei said, adding that customers are eligible for a
refund even if they do not have the receipts or have already opened the
products.
Chang Mei-feng (常梅峰), the general manager of Ting
Hsin’s oil division, has resigned to take responsibility for the issue and the
group will set up an investigation team to determine who else should be held
accountable, Wei said.
In addition, Wei said he has
also resigned as chairman of the government-funded private organization that
issues Good Manufacturing Practice certificates.
Wei Chuan bought 2.13 million
kilograms of soybean oil from Chang Chi to make vegetable oil, but Wei Chuan
president Chang Chiao-hua (張教華) said his company stopped using that oil in August.
Ting Hsin said the company also
shipped the tainted oil to China’s Fujian Province so it informed Chinese
dealers on Monday to pull the products from the shelves.
Wei Ying-heng (魏應行), who is also chairman of the
group and Wei Ying-chun’s younger brother, said the oil used in Ting Hsin’s
fried chicken fast-food chain Dicos (德克士) is palm oil imported from Malaysia, as is the oil
used to make instant noodles under the group’s Master Kong (康師傅) brand and the oil in the
sauce for its noodles.
The group did not take its
products off the market immediately because two separate tests conducted after
Oct. 16 showed that the oil it used did not contain copper chlorophyllin or
gossypol, Wei Ying-heng said.
Structure of the Lead：
WHO-Food
manufacturer Ting Hsin International Group
WHEN-yesterday
WHAT-apologized
WHY-its slow
response in recalling 21 oil products it made using adulterated oil from Chang
Chi Foodstuff Factory Co.
WHERE-not given
HOW-not given
Keywords：
1. recall：召回
2. illicit：違法的
3. spare no
effort to：盡全力去…
4. confess：承認
5. suspicion：懷疑
6. refund：退款、退還
7. eligible：有資格的、適合的
8. resign：辭職
9. accountable：有責任的
10. tainted：受污染的
