A popular Taiwan food company denied on Monday manufacturing and selling tainted or recycled cooking oil in the Chinese mainland after a recent online video showed a tour guide asking tourists in Taiwan to boycott the company.
Tingyi (Cayman Island) Holding Corp said on its official Sina Weibo that it never used tainted or recycled oil in Taiwan in 2014 and has reported the allegation to the police.
It added that it would hold anyone who makes false statements legally accountable.
The controversy erupted after a 2-minute video showed a woman telling a group of visitors allegedly from the Chinese mainland that the company has been using tainted or recycled cooking oil in their food and has been selling its products to the mainland.
"We are boycotting the Ting Hsin International Group [in Taiwan] and we appeal to people from the mainland to join us," the tour guide could be heard in the video as saying, adding that tainted or recycled cooking oil sold to the mainland is 56 times more than in Taiwan.
The video has been reposted over 117,000 times on Weibo.
Tingyi is known in the mainland for manufacturing instant noodles. The company's 2014 earnings reached $400 million and its instant noodles products enjoy a 46.8 percent market share.
