LOOSE LIPS?Kao Chih-ming sent a petition last week that accused the FDA of leaking information about an inspection of its Taiwan factories to Chinese customs authorities

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 20, 2015
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The Executive Yuan on Saturday rejected an accusation by I-Mei Foods Co general manager

Kao Chih-ming (高志明) that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had hurt the company’s sales in China by telling Chinese authorities about irregularities in I-Mei products.

Executive Yuan spokesman Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) said Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) had received a petition from Kao earlier in the week complaining that the FDA’s action had made it harder for I-Mei exports to clear Chinese customs.

The FDA denied the accusation, saying it did not give its Chinese counterpart any information on recent food inspection at I-Mei factories, during which nine-year-old pre-packaged Lunar New Year meals were discovered.

Those past-expiration date items were not for export and were definitely not being sold to China, a FDA spokesman said on Friday. The Straits Exchange Foundation and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits signed an agreement in 2008 to notify each other of information concerning food safety related to cross-strait trade.     [FULL  STORY]