Prosecutors probe Central Union liability for tainted cooking oil

Taipei, July 6 (CNA) Prosecutors in Taichung said Monday they are investigating what caused excessive levels of a carcinogen found in cooking oil supplied by Taichung-based Central Union Oil Corp. and whether the company should be held criminally liable.

The investigation is focusing on about 1,300 metric tons of soybean oil produced by Central Union that was found to contain 8.1 micrograms per kilogram (8.1 parts per billion) of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), exceeding Taiwan's legal limit of 2 ppb for edible oils.

• 1,300 tonnes of tainted cooking oil products recalled: Official

• Soybean oil products recalled over excessive carcinogenic residues

That oil has been delivered to food producers and distributors, and efforts to recall it were launched on July 1, but public agencies have yet to say how much of the tainted product was recovered.

The Taichung District Prosecutors Office said an interagency task force concluded Monday that the excessive level of BaP may have resulted from contaminated raw materials or the manufacturing process, but it offered no further details on what the actual cause might be.

The office said investigators have inspected the company's facilities and seized records related to production, quality control, testing, inventory, shipments and reporting, and that the documents will be cross-checked with third-party data to determine the scope of the problem.

The office said it would determine whether any laws, including possible violations of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation or the Criminal Code, were violated.

The prosecutors' office formally opened the case on July 3 and is coordinating its investigation with the Taichung City Food and Drug Safety Department, the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) and the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau.

Separately, the TFDA said Monday afternoon that the number of downstream businesses identified as being affected by the tainted cooking oil rose to 360, up from 257 a day earlier, involving 18 products.

The agency ordered manufacturers to complete precautionary recalls by midnight Monday of all raw oils, blended oils and processed foods that contained at least 20 percent of the problem oil.

Products containing less than 20 percent of the tainted oil are not subject to recalls but must also be disclosed by the same deadline.

TFDA Director-General Chiang Chih-kang (姜至剛) said the agency is now requiring Taiwan's four major edible oil refiners to strengthen inspections by testing every imported soybean shipment or every production batch for BaP to prevent similar incidents.

Meanwhile, during a legislative committee meeting Monday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus chief Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄) questioned whether Central Union concealed the contamination for nearly three months.

Chuang alleged that downstream food manufacturer Namchow Group (南僑) detected the excessive carcinogen levels and alerted Central Union to the problem in April, but the company continued to make and distribute the product before reporting the issue to the TFDA on June 30.

Chuang also accused Central Union's major shareholders -- Taisun Enterprise Co., Fwusow Industry Co., and Formosa Oilseed Processing Co. -- of being complicit in rather than victims of the situation.

He suspected that the three-month delay may have been intended to avoid disrupting the company's board election in June.

Chuang said Central Union Chairman Tsai Ching-sung (蔡清松) also chairs Formosa Oilseed, making it unlikely that the shareholder companies were unaware of the issue.