華聯(lián)學院英文報刊閱讀教案09‘Gutter oil’scandal tarnishing Hong Kongs reputation,says health secretary

1、Passage 9 4/4Passage 9Gutter oil scandal tarnishing Hong Kongs reputation, says health secretaryPublished by South China Morning Post : 12 September, 2014Hong Kongs reputation has been tarnished by a recent food scare in Taiwan in which lard oil exports from the city were labelled as edible oil, the

2、 secretary for food and health said today.Investigations of a criminal nature, conducted by multiple government departments, are underway to look into who was responsible, Secretary for Food and Health Ko Wing-man said.On Friday afternoon, two men were arrested as part of the probe into the scandal.

3、 Both were arrested on charges of conspiracy to defraud and were detained pending inquiries.He said Hong Kong has a set of licensing laws for both oil for human consumption and oil for other uses. Oil not for human consumption should never end up being used for food preparation.This is extremely ser

4、ious, said Ko in a radio interview this morning. We are treating it as a criminal investigation.Ko said Hong Kong companies who had packaged industrial lard as oil for human consumption to be exported had seriously tarnished the citys reputation. He said so far no company has received licences for f

5、actories producing both kinds of oil.Ko refused to divulge details of the investigation, nor the specific government departments involved, saying that it may affect the work.The latest food scare comes after the “gutter oil” scandal in Taiwan and the recent Shanghai rotten-meat factory scandal.Ko sa

6、id the government has invested heavily on food testing and inspections. Heavier fines or the setting up of a tracing system to track gutter oil production will be considered, he said.Hong Kong company Globalway is under investigation after it is suspected of selling lard oil - made from pork fat but

7、 intended for animal feed or industrial use to Taiwanese edible oil firm Chang Guann.Chang Guann is believed to have blended the lard oil with gutter oil recycled from restaurants and leather processors.Steve Choi, executive director of Dynamic Progress International, one of three Hong Kong companie

8、s which recycle used oil including lard oil into bio-diesel, told RTHK this morning that the price of used oil had risen as much as fourfold in recent years.As no regulations govern the buying of used oil, Choi said he believed some unscrupulous buyers had reprocessed it and then sold it as edible o

9、il.Government figures estimated that a total of 16,000 tonnes of used oil were produced in Hong Kong last year. Of this amount, 11,000 tonnes was recycled into bio-diesel.Choi said most of the rest would be exported to the mainland and other neighbouring countries including Taiwan. But the label of used