Butchers evade investigation! New Taipei City investigates and sends first case to the government

The New Taipei City Government's Health Bureau cooperated with the Department of Health to expand the monitoring program for beta-receptor agonists (commonly known as clenbuterol) in commercially available meat. As of April 2, a total of 103 pieces of meat were sampled and tested. As a result, a piece of pork leg from Lisheng Foods was found to contain 0.69 ppb of "ractopamine", which did not meet the regulations. When the inspectors further investigated, Chen Hongzhi, the head of the upstream manufacturer Hongzhi Meat Products, attempted to circumvent the source and flow of the products and provided false supply sources. This became the first case that the Health Bureau has sent a letter to the New Taipei City Investigation Office for investigation since it began sampling clenbuterol this year. The case will be dealt with in accordance with the law after the facts are clarified.

The New Taipei City Health Bureau investigated beta-receptor hormones in meat products sold on the market, and the upstream manufacturer, Hongzhi Meat, was sent a letter by the health authorities for punishment. (Photo courtesy of New Taipei City Health Bureau)

Lin Guanzhen, director of the Food and Drug Administration Division of the Department of Health, pointed out that the 103 samples of meat were taken from restaurants, traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, distributors, food factories and importers in New Taipei City, including 41 pieces of beef, 56 pieces of pork, 3 pieces of geese and 3 pieces of ducks. What does not comply with regulations is the pork hind leg meat that Lisheng purchased from Hongzhi Meat Products (No. 81, Xingfu East Road, Xinzhuang District).

However, when the inspectors went to Hongzhi Meat Products to trace the upstream importers, the person in charge, Chen Hongzhi, tried to evade the inspection by making inconsistent statements. Regarding the flow of goods, he said that all the goods had been sold out. He also crossed out the column of the obligor for inspection (unified number) of the "Notice of Permit for Imported Food and Related Products from the Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health, Executive Yuan" and the column of the applicant (unified number) of the "Certificate of Imported Animal Quarantine from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Bureau, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan". At the same time, in the interview records, he casually gave false information and signed it for the auditors to take back.

Because Chen Hongzhi, the person in charge of Hongzhi Meat Products, was extremely uncooperative during the Health Bureau's investigation, he was suspected of violating Article 211 of the Criminal Code, which stipulates "altering official documents." The Health Bureau finally sent a letter to the New Taipei City Investigation Division of the Investigation Bureau to investigate.