Fu Wei Xiang admits to 24 oil products adulterated with cottonseed oil, peanut oil with added flavoring

The New Taipei City Government Health Bureau invited the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office to jointly trace the flow of oils and cottonseed oil from "Fu Wei Xiang Food Co., Ltd.", and found that the company's claim that all oil products containing "cottonseed oil" were exported was inconsistent with the facts; the person in charge of the company admitted that among its domestically sold product lines, 24 oil products were blended with "cottonseed oil", and another 1 item, "blended peanut oil", had peanut flavoring added without labeling. The Health Bureau imposed a fine of 200,000 yuan per case, a fine of 5 million yuan for 25 product items, and an additional fine of 3 million yuan for stating improper facts and deliberately evading inspection, totaling a fine of 8 million yuan.

On the 21st, the New Taipei City Government Health Bureau conducted an inspection at "Fu Wei Xiang Food Co., Ltd." in Wugu District. The operator claimed that the company began importing Australian crude cottonseed oil 3 years earlier, shipped it to a Changhua factory for refining, and exported the refined cottonseed oil to Singapore; another portion of the refined cottonseed oil was made into blended oil and exported to Hong Kong, China and other countries, with no oil products containing "cottonseed oil" sold domestically.

Health Bureau inspectors took back documents including purchase vouchers, production items, blending formulas, product labels and sales flow for comparison. They found that over the past 3 years the company had imported 5828.62 metric tons of crude cottonseed oil, but the export customs declaration quantity was only about 18.51 million 53 metric tons of "cottonseed oil", and demanded that the company provide an explanation.

The person in charge of Fu Wei Xiang, surnamed Chen, went to the Health Bureau last night and admitted that among the company's domestically sold product lines, 24 oil products were blended with "cottonseed oil", and another 1 item, "blended peanut oil", had peanut flavoring added. In addition to the 8 million yuan fine, the Health Bureau also transferred the related criminal illegal matters to the prosecutorial and investigative authorities for expanded investigation, and will comprehensively inspect domestic circulation and export products.

The Health Bureau required Fu Wei Xiang to fully remove from shelves and recall the 25 mislabeled products, and called on the public, if they have doubts about the company's products, to process returns or exchanges with the various distributors.