CNA file photo

Taipei, Oct. 10 (CNA) Ting Hsin International Group's problems may have grown more serious Friday after Taiwan's Health and Welfare Ministry said that another one of the food conglomerate's subsidiaries was found to have imported animal feed oil from Vietnam.

Officials at the ministry's Food and Drug Administration said Vietnam's Ministry of Trade and Industry confirmed that the lard and beef tallow imported by Ting Hsin Oil & Fat Industrial Co. from Dai Hanh Phuc in Vietnam was oil used in animal feed and not for human consumption.

Health inspectors are in the process of checking the edible oil company's factory in Pingtung County and have sealed two tanks with 358 tons of lard.

They are also checking the company's inventory to check when the enterprise began buying animal feed oil from Vietnam, how much it purchased, and what other Taiwanese companies have bought similar oil from Dai Hanh Phuc.

Taiwan's government has asked Hong Kong last month to help investigate oil sources from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao, while asking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to screen oil products exported from Spain, Vietnam, Japan and Australia.

Vietnam was the first country to send back answers, the administration said.

The latest finding came after another Ting Hsin International subsidiary, Cheng I Food Co., was exposed Wednesday as having sold lard mixed with animal feed oil not meant for human consumption, shocking consumers.

Cheng I has an estimated 80 percent share of the lard and lard-based oil market in Taiwan.

Last month, some food products of Wei Chuan Foods Corp., another member of the Ting Hsin group, were found to have been processed with cooking oil made from recycled kitchen and industrial waste.

(By Cheng Ching-fang and Elizabeth Hsu)
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