Taiwan indicts key suspects in tainted oil scandal

Prosecutors in Taiwan's Pingtung county on Friday indicted eight suspects at the center of a tainted oil scandal on charges of fraud and breaches of food safety regulations.

The suspects included Kuo Lieh-cheng, owner of the illegal factory which made the oil, and Yeh Wen-hsiang, chairman of Chang Guann Co., which bought Kuo's product and processed it into lard.

Taiwan has been in the grip of fear and anger since the island's police busted Kuo's ring, selling hundreds of tonnes of cooking oil made from kitchen waste and grease from leather processing plants in Pingtung and neighboring Kaohsiung on Sept. 4.

Yeh's Chang Guann, a well-established cooking oil supplier on the island, produced 782 tonnes of lard from the oil and sold it to hundreds of food companies and restaurants.

Over 1,000 businesses, including leading brands such as Wei Chuan, Vedan, Want Want and Master Kong, were identified as having used the oil.

Massive recalls of products ranging from cakes to instant noodles have been taking place over the last month, making this Taiwan's worst food scandal in recent years.