Nanqiao Chemical suspected of blending industrial oil into edible oil, beef tallow and coconut oil raise concerns

(15:30 News Flash) Namchow has obtained and published official Australian certification confirming that the oil products are food grade. Chairman Chen Feilong stated that the twelve batches of beef tallow named by the county government are all food grade; it was merely an operational oversight that five of them were mistakenly registered as industrial grade, and they had obtained official Australian certification of food grade by 11:50. Chen Feilong also apologized to everyone for the panic caused by internal administrative oversights. (Live notes from the Namchow Chemical press conference, please click here)

By Huang Peiyun, special correspondent for NewsMarket

Following the food safety storms over lard from Chang Guann and Cheng I, Namchow Chemical has also been hit by a scandal involving suspected imports of industrial oil blended into edible oil.

Acting Director-General of the Food and Drug Administration Chiang Yu-mei announced today that the FDA was investigating the remaining two of Taiwan's four largest lard producers. When the Northern Regional Management Center sent inspectors to the site on the 13th to inspect Namchow Chemical Industrial, the original goal was to examine its imports and shipments of Spanish lard, but while inspecting other oils, they unexpectedly discovered that, between 2013 and 2014, of Namchow's 12 batches of beef tallow that underwent border inspection, only 7 batches were accompanied by food import applications, while the remaining 5 batches were labeled as industrial-use oil and cleared customs as exempt from inspection;

In addition, 22 batches of coconut oil had no food-use oil certificates, with only 3 batches labeled: Refined for human use; another 3 batches of palm kernel oil had no food import applications at all and were labeled as industrial-use oil, for a total of 27 batches of oil products that could not produce food certificates, and could not prove that these oil products were used for Crystal soap.

The FDA is currently requiring Namchow to submit proof before noon today, and all operations are suspended pending clarification.