Ting Hsin food firm boss charged over tainted cooking oil
The head of a lard supplier in Taiwan was formally charged yesterday with deliberately selling adulterated cooking oil.
The indictment of Wei Ying-chun, one of four brothers who run the Ting Hsin International Group, was delivered by the Taipei District Prosecutors Office. Charges include fraud and forgery.
Wei was already in custody in Chunghua county in the centre of the island on a charge linked to a cooking oil scandal implicating another subsidiary of the group.
It has been accused of using oil meant for animal feed in its products.
Another subsidiary of the firm, Wei Chuan Foods Corp, Taiwan's second-largest food manufacturer, was found to have sold food products made with gutter oil, a potentially harmful mixture of waste oil recycled from restaurant fryers and slaughterhouse byproducts.
Bowing to public pressure, Wei had resigned from his positions as chairman of three of the group's subsidiaries.
Ting Hsin has said it will shut down its oil manufacturing business in Taiwan.
It will also donate NT$3 billion (HK$765 million) to the government or government-designated foundations to help restore the reputation of Taiwan's food industry.
Critics described the move as a token gesture aimed at propping up its business across the strait.
Its oil manufacturing operations in Taiwan generated only US$65 million last year, about 0.08 per cent of the group's revenues. The firm's food business on the mainland generated US$10 billion.
President Ma Ying-jeou, who has declared the contaminated cooking oil scandal a national security issue, said the food industry might lose NT$16 billion following a series of food safety fiascos.
Lard supplier Chang Guann was fined NT$50 million last month for selling a product containing gutter oil as cooking oil. Several firms were also found last year to have illegally added colouring agents to cooking oil, or blended olive oil with cheaper products such as cottonseed oil and sold it as pure olive oil.
Structure of the Lead：
WHO- The head of a lard supplier
WHEN- yesterday
WHAT- was formally charged
WHERE - in Taiwan
HOW- not given
WHY- deliberately selling adulterated cooking oil
Key Words:
1. lard 豬油
2. deliberately 故意地，蓄意地
3. adulterated 攙雜的，攙假的
4. indictment 控告，告發；起訴
5. Prosecutors 檢察官，公訴人
6. forgery 偽造
7. custody 照管；保管；監護
8. implicating 牽連；連累
9. subsidiary 輔助的，附帶的；次要的
10. slaughterhouse 屠殺場
11. byproducts 副產品
12. revenue （國家的）歲入；稅收
13. contaminated 弄髒的；受汙染的
14. fiascos 完全失敗；可恥的失敗
15. gutter （道路旁的）排水溝，街溝
16. colouring 食物色素
17. cottonseed 棉子
WHY- deliberately selling adulterated cooking oil
Key Words:
1. lard 豬油
2. deliberately 故意地，蓄意地
3. adulterated 攙雜的，攙假的
4. indictment 控告，告發；起訴
5. Prosecutors 檢察官，公訴人
6. forgery 偽造
7. custody 照管；保管；監護
8. implicating 牽連；連累
9. subsidiary 輔助的，附帶的；次要的
10. slaughterhouse 屠殺場
11. byproducts 副產品
12. revenue （國家的）歲入；稅收
13. contaminated 弄髒的；受汙染的
14. fiascos 完全失敗；可恥的失敗
15. gutter （道路旁的）排水溝，街溝
16. colouring 食物色素
17. cottonseed 棉子
