Five individuals connected to Polam Kopitiam, including the owner and chefs of the Taipei restaurant, were indicted yesterday for negligent homicide in connection with a food poisoning case that resulted in six deaths last year, the Taipei District Prosecutors Office said.
The fatal food poisoning case, which occurred in late March last year, resulted in 33 reported illnesses -- including six individuals who later died -- after dining at the Xinyi branch of the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam in Taipei, deputy chief prosecutor Kao I-shu (高一書) told a news conference.
Polam Kopitiam owner, surnamed Li (黎), manager of the Xinyi branch, surnamed Wang (王), two chefs, surnamed Chou (周) and Ho (胡), and an intern at the restaurant, were all indicted for negligent homicide, negligent injury, and violation of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), Kao said.
Photo: Kan Meng-lin, Taipei Times
Regarding the defendants’ offenses, Kao stated they all understood that flat rice noodles -- a key ingredient in the dishes consumed by all the victims in the case -- should be stored at low temperatures once the package has been opened.
However, Ho, Chou, and the intern “carelessly placed” opened packages of flat rice noodles in a storage basket on the lower shelf of a kitchen table, near the floor and drainage system, at room temperature from an unspecified date in March until March 24, Kao said.
The three individuals continued to serve customers the improperly stored noodles, he added.
Ho failed to follow basic food safety practices, such as preventing cross-contamination, by repeatedly using the same plastic bag as a glove to handle flat rice noodles opened at different times and by mixing noodles from different packages, Kao said.
As for the reason why bongkrekic acid -- a rare and deadly toxin detected in all victims of the food poisoning incident -- was produced, Kao explained that it was due to the “favorable environment” that allowed the bacterium Burkholderia gladioli to grow and generate the toxin.
According to Kao, the Far Eastern Xinyi A13 Department Store, where the restaurant was located, turned off its air conditioning system after business hours, and Ho, Chou and the intern routinely hosed down the kitchen floors at the end of their night shifts, allowing wastewater to flow into the drainage system near the storage basket.
Such hot and humid conditions, combined with Ho, Chou, and the intern’s mishandling of flat rice noodles, resulted in food items containing flat rice noodles sold between March 19 and 24 being contaminated with bongkrekic acid, he added.
Kao said the prosecutors office is asking the court to impose a fixed-term imprisonment of no less than four years and two months for Ho’s actions and no less than four years for Li’s actions.
Li, the owner of Polam Kopitiam, failed to establish and enforce a food safety management system at the restaurant, attempted to shift blame after the incident and showed no remorse, Kao explained.
As for Wang and the intern, Kao said that the office recommended “an appropriate sentence,” while suggesting “a heavier penalty” for Chou, without specifying the suggested sentence for the three.
According to Article 276 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of China (Taiwan’s official name), “a person who negligently causes the death of another shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than five years, short-term imprisonment, or a fine of no more than NT$500,000 (US$ 15,273).”
In response to media queries about the exact cause of the food poisoning incident, specifically the origin of the toxin, the Prosecutors Office said that evidence from autopsy reports and surveillance footage from the kitchen, is “sufficient to determine” that the food responsible for the incident was the flat rice noodles.
Those flat rice noodles “were contaminated with bongkrekic acid at the Polam Kopitiam A13 branch,” the prosecutors office said, without further addressing or offering proof as to the origin of the bacterium Burkholderia gladioli.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
The Civil Aviation Administration yesterday said that it is considering punishments for China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines for making hard landings and overworking their cabin crew when the nation was hit by Typhoon Kong-rey in October last year. The civil aviation authority launched an investigation after media reported that many airlines were forced to divert their flights to different airports or go around after failing to land when the typhoon affected the nation on Oct. 30 and 31 last year. The agency reviewed 503 flights dispatched by Taiwanese airlines during those two days, as well as weather data, flight hours
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Three people have had their citizenship revoked after authorities confirmed that they hold Chinese ID cards, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said yesterday. Two of the three people were featured in a recent video about Beijing’s “united front” tactics by YouTuber Pa Chiung (八炯) and Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源), including Su Shi-en (蘇士恩), who displayed a Chinese ID card in the video, and taekwondo athlete Lee Tung-hsien (李東憲), who mentioned he had obtained a Chinese ID card in a telephone call with Chen, Liang told the council’s weekly news conference. Lee, who reportedly worked in