The distribution of cooking oil found to contain a carcinogen is spreading nationwide in Taiwan. Prosecutors seized NT$130 million from four companies including Zhonglian, and Zhonglian's general manager was detained on suspicion of deliberately concealing information. Well-known venues and restaurants, including the National Taichung Theater, have joined the list of those affected.
Taiwanese prosecutors seized about NT$130 million from four companies including Zhonglian in connection with the carcinogenic-oil case, and the pursuit of illicit proceeds may extend further up the chain, United Daily News reported.
광고 문의 · 300×250Zhonglian general manager Yu Ling-chung was detained after the court found he had 'deliberately concealed information.' That the company knew where the tainted oil products had gone and did not say so is the core of the detention rationale.
The scope keeps widening. United Daily News reported that the National Taichung Theater, along with Jin Da Yuan, Minato 13 Banchi and A-Er Liang Guo, were confirmed to have used the oil. The inclusion of food outlets at a public cultural venue enlarged the fallout.
Food safety spills into politics
The case moved onto the political calendar. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an proposed a July 25 rally on Ketagalan Boulevard and Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen echoed it, according to United Daily News and the Liberty Times, while opposition figures sparred over who had first planned protest action.
Food-safety cases turning into street rallies is nothing new in Taiwan. The Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation was amended repeatedly after the large oil scandals of 2013-14, yet gaps in tracing raw-material history surfaced the same way again.
What consumers should check
Authorities are releasing the list of establishments that used the oil in stages. For consumers, checking the official list published by the Food and Drug Administration is more accurate than trying to memorize individual business names.
Sinophone Bridge Times does not treat this as one party's blunder or as ammunition. What Taiwan's Chinese restaurant trade — and Chinese traders shipping Taiwanese ingredients to Korea and Southeast Asia — need now is not a contest over political blame but precise information on which lot went where.