Taichung to fine Wagyu Emperor NT$1.44 million
Wagyu Emperor, a grilled meat restaurant in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯), is to be fined at least NT$1.44 million (US$44,321) and ordered to suspend business after multiple expired food products were found in its kitchen, the city government said yesterday.
The Taichung City Health Bureau said it discovered the food safety breaches during a search on Sunday, after receiving a tipoff from one of the restaurant’s former employees.
Inspectors found a range of expired products, including four cans of doubanjiang (chili bean sauce), two containers of kombu dashi broth, three jars of concentrated beverage syrups, 11 boxes of miso, 24 boxes of Morioka reimen noodles, and 18 boxes of several cuts of beef, the bureau said.
After the search, the restaurant issued a statement saying that the expired food items were being saved for “employee training purposes” and had not been served to customers.
At the time, the health bureau said that it was still investigating the matter, but viewed the restaurant’s claims “with a high level of suspicion.”
Taichung Health Bureau Director Tseng Tzu-chan (曾梓展) yesterday said his agency planned later that day to issue fines for the 12 types of expired food products that were found during the inspection.
Restaurants are typically fined
NT$60,000 for each expired food product, or NT$120,000 if the expired products were used knowingly, meaning that in this case, the fine would be “at least NT$1.44 million,” he said.
Wagyu Emperor has also been ordered to suspend business, because it has failed to provide records on product deliveries, inventory and sales, Tseng said, adding that if it was unable to do so by Wednesday, it would face an additional fine of NT$30,000 to NT$3 million.
The former employee who blew the whistle on the restaurant is entitled to a reward of 50 percent of the fine, or NT$720,000, Tseng said.
Wagyu Emperor opened in September last year and touted its use of premium wagyu beef imported directly from Japan.
A two-person set menu at the restaurant costs NT$3,900.