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Ting Hsin sorry for slow recall of
adulterated oils
By Camaron Kao / Staff reporter
Wei Chuan Foods Corp president
Chang Chiao-hua and Ting Hsin International Group chairmen Wei Ying-chun and Wei
Ying-heng, first to third from right, bow to apologize for the company’s tainted
products yesterday in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
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.
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