Taiwan tainted oil recall expands to 401 products

Taipei, July 8 (CNA) Taiwan's precautionary recall of products linked to tainted cooking oil widened Wednesday from 232 to 401 items, as health authorities added 169 more, including packaged chicken breast, instant noodles, convenience store meals, and restaurant dishes.

The Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) said the expanded list followed its latest tracing of products made with soybean salad oil supplied by Taichung-based Central Union Oil Corp., which was found to contain excessive levels of the carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene (BaP).

The contaminated oil involved about 1,300 metric tons of oil distributed to 360 downstream businesses through 30 batches of 18 products sold by Taisun Enterprise Co., Fwusow Industry Co. and Formosa Oilseed Processing Co., according to the TFDA.

The TFDA has contacted 331 affected businesses and was still tracing the remaining 29.

Newly added products include six items from Le Blé d'Or, two rice burgers from Lao Xie Zhen, 33 products from Louisa Coffee, 45 packaged chicken products from Charoen Pokphand Enterprise (Taiwan) Co., eight instant noodle products from Ve Wong Corp., and 14 convenience store ready meals made by Ping Rong Foods Co.'s Xinfeng plant.

The TFDA said the first list of 232 affected products, released Tuesday, led to the recall of 43.278 metric tons of food products. The updated list also includes product names, packaging details and expiration dates to help consumers identify affected items.

Meanwhile, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) rejected opposition accusations that the government had delayed disclosing downstream products.

Cho said authorities had followed the principle of disclosing confirmed findings and removing affected products immediately.

He said the Ministry of Health and Welfare, after an expert review, decided a blanket recall was necessary because inspecting every product individually would be impractical, dismissing allegations of a cover-up.

The opposition criticism followed a series of expanded recall measures, from directly implicated products on July 2 to processed foods containing at least 20 percent of the tainted oil on July 4, and finally to all processed foods made with the affected oil, regardless of concentration.

Cho said the authorities are continuing to investigate the contamination case, monitor cooking oil supplies and prices, and pursue administrative and criminal investigations.

The Cabinet will conduct a final review on Thursday before announcing additional follow-up measures, he added.

Separately, Keelung City Health Bureau said 80 convenience store food items produced by Lian Hwa Foods Corp.'s Keelung plant that appeared on the TFDA list were no longer on store shelves because they had either been sold or had expired.

In Taichung, authorities identified five third-tier food businesses that had used or purchased products made with the tainted oil, with all affected items removed from sale.

In Pingtung County, officials said 6,389.9 kilograms of sauces, broths and other products had been precautionarily removed from the market.