Minoya Food tampered with expiry dates and sold products to PX Mart, Taisugar and more than 4,000 downstream vendors

Text/Taoyuan County Health Bureau

The Taoyuan County Government Health Bureau recently received a tip-off that Minoya Enterprise Co., Ltd. and Chengkang Food Co., Ltd. were suspected of repackaging foods such as French mixed vegetable medley sauce, frozen chicken legs, coffee and cakes, tampering with their expiry dates, and then selling them to PX Mart, Taisugar, RT-Mart, OK Convenience Store, Mr. Brown Coffee and other chain casual-dining restaurants, as well as the Zhen Shan Mei Motel under the same group.

Following a joint raid by the Health Bureau's Food Safety Cobra Task Force, the Police Bureau's Criminal Investigation Corps, the Department of Economic Development, the Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Bureau, the Public Works Bureau, the Fire Department and the Food and Drug Administration of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, coffee labeled with a future date was seized at the Zhen Shan Mei Motel; in addition, French mixed vegetable medley sauce produced in the 101st year of the Republic of China [2012] was seized at the Chengkang site. On site, 199 packets of "French mixed vegetable medley sauce," 270 boxes of "bone-in legs" T6, 349 boxes of "Black Forest cake" from the Abu cake series, 10 slices of "vanilla taro paste," and more than 2,000 boxes of "mackerel" (10 kg per box) were sealed and stored. It is currently understood that the above illegal acts lasted at least 2 years. The entire case violates Article 47 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation, which states that "evading, obstructing or refusing the inspection, testing, seizure or sealing and storage prescribed by this Act shall be punishable by a fine of not less than NT$30,000 and not more than NT$3 million," and also violates Article 15, Paragraph 1, and shall be punishable under Article 44 by a fine of not less than NT$60,000 and not more than NT$50 million. The company has been ordered to stop manufacturing.

In addition, the county government's joint inspection found that the factory involved unauthorized construction, some operating areas were unregistered, workers worked overtime, there was suspected illegal deployment of foreign workers, and fire safety inspections failed. The above matters will be handled in accordance with the law. Because it has more than 4,000 customers and more than 300 product items, the entire case will be referred to the prosecutors and investigation authorities for in-depth investigation.

The Health Bureau stated that if the public discovers illegal conduct by food businesses, they can call the food safety reporting hotline 0800-285-000. If verified as true, a reporting reward may be obtained.