Datong rice wine is not actually brewed from rice; 11 of the 12 wines are illegal
The Finance Department of the Changhua County Government said today that after members of the public recently reported that the Tatung cooking rice wine made by Ta Lien Wine Industry Co., Ltd., an affiliated company of Tatung Chang Chi Foodstuff Factory Co., Ltd., gave off a pungent odor when cooked, samples were taken from the market and from the company, the company's wine-making formulas were collected, and account books and vouchers were examined; verification confirmed that Tatung cooking rice wine is not brewed and fermented from rice; fruit wines such as cranberry wine are made by blending edible alcohol, and of the company's 12 wine products, apart from the Tatung Supreme Ginseng Wine, the other 11 all violate the Tobacco and Alcohol Administration Act, involving false labeling, and a fine of 5.5 million yuan was imposed.
Chan Ming-jui, director of the Finance Department of the Changhua County Government, said that in order to protect consumer rights, the Changhua County Government had already used the weekend to complete the investigation and penalty procedures, and in response to the company's malicious production of falsely labeled wine products, under the Tobacco and Alcohol Administration Act, imposed the heaviest penalties, with each of the 11 wine products fined the maximum amount of 500,000 yuan, for a total fine of 5.5 million yuan.
The Changhua County Government ordered the company to complete the removal from shelves and recall of the violating wine products within 15 days from the day after receiving the penalty notice; if the company's violating wine products can still be found on the market after the deadline, it will report to the Ministry of Finance to suspend its manufacturing for 6 months to 1 year and confiscate the violating wine products.
The Finance Department of the Changhua County Government also called on channel operators still selling the company's wine products to remove them from shelves on their own initiative. As for whether the false labeling of wine products involves fraud under the Criminal Code and evasion of tobacco and alcohol taxes, the matter will be transferred to prosecutors and police, the National Taxation Bureau and other units for investigation.
As for whether the company's wine production process complies with alcohol hygiene standards and regulations and whether industrial alcohol was used, this will be announced only after further test reports are released.
