Taiwan alcohol affiliate sold fake 'distilled' spirits — 11 of 12 products mislabeled

Ta Lien Alcohol Company (大聯製酒工業公司) was an affiliate of Tatung Changchi Foodstuff Factory Co. (大統長基食品), one of Taiwan's largest cooking oil manufacturers. On 28 October 2013, the Changhua County Department of Finance announced that 11 out of 12 alcohol products tested from Ta Lien had contents that did not match their labels. Products labeled as distilled alcohol were actually mixtures of edible alcohol, glutinous rice-wine flavoring, and juices.

The company produced approximately 400,000 liters of rice cooking alcohol annually, of which 60,000 liters were sold to the Taiwanese military. The rest was sold to retail stores and supermarkets in 600-cubic-centimeter packages. The mislabeling covered a range of products including wine and rice wine — only one product, a ginseng alcohol, was found to comply with labeling standards.

Ta Lien was fined NT$5.5 million (approximately US$170,000). The Department of Finance also requested that the Ministry of Finance suspend the company from manufacturing for six months to one year. The scandal broke just weeks before the larger Da Tong fake olive oil scandal at the parent company, which led to the CEO being prosecuted in prison and the company being shut down. The Ta Lien case was the first crack in a widening food safety crisis that would engulf the Chang Chi group.