Kaohsiung's 'Mr. Fresh' grocery chain probed for selling expired foods

Kaohsiung, Jan. 31 (CNA) The owner of the Kaohsiung-based grocery store chain "Mr. Fresh" was questioned by prosecutors Tuesday on suspicion of relabeling and selling expired frozen food products.

In a statement Wednesday, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office said it had launched an investigation after receiving a tip-off about the company, which has three branches in affluent areas of the city and specializes in imported food products.

Prosecutors and officials from the Kaohsiung City Health Department conducted searches at the store's Gushan and Lingya branches on Tuesday, where they seized 184 expired products with altered expiration dates and 81 products with "questionable" expiration dates, the statement said.

Prosecutors also summoned five people for questioning, including the company's 36-year-old owner, Chung Sheng-hsu (鍾昇旭), and a 35-year-old female store manager surnamed Huang (黃).

According to prosecutors, Chung and Huang routinely opened shipments of products with shelf lives of less than one year -- including frozen croquettes, meats, fish, and hot pot ingredients -- and rewrapped them in vacuum sealer bags.

Chung would then instruct employees to enter the products into the grocery's POS system and print labels with an expiration date exactly one year from the day they went on sale, prosecutors said.

When products did expire, employees were asked to relabel them as "nearly-expired products" so that they could still be sold, the prosecutors office said.

After conducting the searches, prosecutors questioned Chung and Huang on suspicion of forgery, aggravated fraud and violations of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation.

A Kaohsiung court later set bail at NT$2 million (US$63,942) for Chung and NT$200,000 for Huang, while three other Mr. Fresh employees who were also questioned were released without bail.

Multiple local media outlets reported Wednesday that Chung is the son of former Legislator Chung Shao-ho (鍾紹和), a member of the Kuomintang who served one term from 2008 to 2012.