Update | Taiwan's 'gutter oil' scandal grows with further 195 firms said to have used product
Scandal grows as Taiwanese officials can't rule out that HK, mainland firms might be affected
Taiwan's "gutter oil" scandal continues to grow, with a further 195 food manufacturers identified as having used recycled oil, on top of 235 companies identified earlier.
As of its latest count, the Food and Drug Administration said on Sunday that 933 restaurants, bakeries and food plants, including 397 in Taipei city, had used the tainted oil supplied by Chang Guann.
The island's Food and Drug Administration would not rule out the possibility Hong Kong and the mainland were affected.
"According to our latest findings, so far 40 of the 235 companies [earlier found to have] bought the oil in question were found to have used it to produce or process into 110 kinds of products," Yeh Ming-kung, head of the administration, said.
One company, Gassho, bought 69 tonnes of the oil from Chang Guann, the Kaohsiung-based supplier of lard and cooking oil at the centre of the scandal.
Chang Guann bought at least 240 tonnes of the gutter oil - recycled from kitchen waste, by-products from leather processing plants and offal from slaughterhouses - from an unlicensed factory in Pingtung at below-market rates, police have said.