November 3, 2021

Vendors in Taiwan accused of misrepresenting beef items after pork found in products

Several vendors of beef and lamb items are misrepresenting their products, the Consumer Protection Association of Taiwan (CPAT) charged on November 2, after it found pork in several of their products.

The association had testing service provider SGS test 50 different beef and lamb products sold locally, and seven of them were found to contain pork, including six items purchased directly from online sellers.

The other problematic item was from a renowned lamb hotpot restaurant in Tainan, the association said.

Of the 50 tested items, 25 were lamb and beef meatballs and meat slices bought online and the other half were lamb items bought from such stores as hotpot restaurants, malls, supermarkets and specialised meat stores in Pingtung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, the group said.

Meat items sold as lamb or beef should not contain any traces of pork, CPAT said, and it warned consumers to be aware of unscrupulous shops that include pork in products represented as beef and lamb.

The group urged authorities to rigorously inspect the sources of the problematic meat products, and asked the vendors not to mislead consumers and remove their products from the shelves, or label the ingredients in their products more accurately.

- Focus Taiwan