Nearly 4,000 kg of tainted intestines sold; 1/4 unaccounted for in Taipei: FDA

Taipei, Oct. 5 (CNA) Nearly 4,000 kilograms of tainted pork intestines were sold to intermediary buyers in four cities and counties in Taiwan, of which more than half has been removed from the market and over 1,000 kg sold in Taipei is still being accounted for, the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Sunday.

According to prosecutors, a vendor in Pingtung County, Pai Wei Foods Co., and its employees were found to have soaked spoiled pork intestines in industrial-grade hydrogen peroxide to disguise them as fresh, in an attempt to make illegal profits.

In a statement late Saturday, the FDA said it had identified 3,795 kg of tainted intestines that Pai Wei Foods sold to intermediary buyers in Taoyuan, Taipei, Pingtung and Kaohsiung.

Of that total, 2,159 kg of intestines sold to Great Chan Shun Foods, a food processing company in Taoyuan, were removed from the market on Saturday night, Wei Jen-ting (魏任廷), head of the FDA's southern management center, told CNA.

As of Sunday night, the FDA had confirmed that a 180 kg batch of the intestines sold to a buyer in Pingtung had already been sold to customers.

Of the 126 kg sold to a frozen foods company in Kaohsiung, 90 kg was destroyed by the company, while 36 kg was sold to a purveyor of ship provisions, Wei said.

The status of the remaining quantity, a 1,330 kg batch of intestines sold to a person listed in Pai Wei Foods' business records as "Taipei Ningxia Market Mr. Chen," remains significantly less clear.

On Sunday night, Wei described Chen as a "vendor," and said that Chen had already sold all 1,330 kg of tainted intestines to various clients.

To date, only 145 kg of the intestines Chen sold -- 75 kg to a mapo tofu vendor in Ningxia Night Market and 70 kg to a noodle restaurant in Ximen -- have been located and removed to be destroyed, Wei said.

The FDA did not provide any other information on Chen, including whether he has any connection to Ningxia Night Market, as is suggested in Pai Wei Foods' business records.

In a statement Sunday, the Ningxia Night Market Tourism Association said that none of its pork intestine vendors are surnamed Chen, and speculated that "Mr. Chen" may be a seller at Huannan Wholesale Market, where the intestine vendors source their products.

According to Pingtung prosecutors, the owner and four employees of Pai Wei Foods were questioned Wednesday on suspicion of violations of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation and fraud under the Criminal Code.

They were later released on pre-charge bail ranging from NT$80,000 (US$2,630) to NT$500,000, prosecutors said.

Aside from the 3,795 kg of tainted intestines that were released into the market, another 11,664 kg were seized from the company's main facility in Pingtung and another 940 kg were seized from storage in New Taipei, according to the FDA.