Taiwan imposes tougher penalties for food violations

Taiwan imposes tougher penalties for food violations

Taiwan's government says it will impose harsher penalties for food safety violations after a "gutter oil" scandal.

Offenders will face seven years in prison for lacing food with banned substances or falsifying ingredients. If the violation results in death they could be jailed for life and face higher fines.

Tainted oil

An investigation found that the company had sold 782 tonnes of tainted oil, collected from cookers and grease traps, mixed with lard oil to customers.

Hundreds of tonnes of snacks, instant noodles and dumplings have been removed from shelves in Taiwan and Hong Kong since the violation was revealed.

The BBC's Cindy Sui in Taipei says the government is being blamed for being lax in managing food safety.

The new measures also include more monitoring of food producers and a hotline for reporting offences to the government

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/

Justyna Golder, Asia Opiela