Taipei, Dec. 17 (CNA) Tainan City Prosecutors Office on Tuesday seized 300 metric tons of starch at a factory in the southern city, on suspicion that the product contained an industrial adhesive not approved for use in food.

The raid was made after Tainan health authorities found during a random check in November that a night market vendor in Tainan was selling starch modified with maleic anhydride.

The authorities traced the starch to a factory owned by Mao-Li Co. Ltd., which had been fined NT$120,000 in May for producing tainted starch. At the time, 32 metric tons of starch at the factory was seized and destroyed.

In Tuesday's raid, prosecutors seized and sealed 300 metric tons of starch at the Mao-Li plant on suspicion of maleic anhydride contamination, and took in four people for questioning.

Since May, seven of Tainan's 15 starch producers have been found ineligible to continue business and investigators have confiscated 5,589 sacks of starch in the city's factories and markets.

(By Chang Jung-hsiang and Y.L. Kao)
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