BEIJING, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- A group of people including officials of Beijing Tongrentang Co. Ltd., a renowned traditional Chinese medicine company, were held accountable and a subsidiary was fined for expired honey products, local authorities said Tuesday.
Local media revealed last December that a honey producer of Tongrentang Bee Industry Co. Ltd., located in east China's Jiangsu Province, allegedly reused expired honey and changed production dates.
An investigation launched by the local market regulation administration in Jiangsu affirmed that those behaviors violated China's laws and regulations on food security.
The food and drug administration of Daxing District in Beijing also found that more than 2,200 jars of the company's products had entered the market since October last year.
Tongrentang Bee Industry Co. Ltd. made a statement Monday night to recall those products and released detailed information about the products and compensation for the customers.
Over 110,000 yuan (16,200 U.S. dollars) of illegal earnings and 3,300 jars of involved items have been confiscated. The food production license of the subsidiary has been revoked.
So far, 14 people including high-level officials of Tongrentang were found responsible. The subsidiary was fined 14 million yuan (2.1 million U.S. dollars) for breaching food safety regulations.
