A shipment of fava beans, also known as broad beans, from Japan was barred from entering Taiwan yesterday after tests determined it was contaminated with radiation.
However, food regulators and Atomic Energy Council officials said the level of radiation was low and did not exceed government safety standards.
“We have found iodine-131 [I-131] and cesium-137 on the shell of a shipment of 14kg of raw broad beans,” said Wang Chung-der (王重德), chief of the council’s Department of Radiation Protection. “Although they meet safety standards, we have asked customs to seal it up for safekeeping so they will not enter the local market.”
Tsai Shu-chen (蔡淑貞), chief of the Food and Drug Administration’s food safety division, said the importer had been notified when the council informed them of the results yesterday morning. Because the contamination was below safety levels, the importer could continue to sell the products at local markets, she said.
Tsai said all fresh food imported from Japan must pass safety examinations before it is allowed to enter the local market.
Wang said I-131 has a half-life of about eight days and that almost all of it is gone in 80 days. However, fresh food cannot keep for that long, he said.
Wang said documents showed the beans were imported from Kagoshima, which is far from the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
More time was needed to determine how and where the product was contaminated, he said.
As for other products from Japan, Wang said Japan’s chief government spokesman had said on Saturday that elevated radiation levels had been found in milk and spinach near the Fukushima plant.
Although the levels are higher than safety standards, Wang said the beans did not pose an immediate health risk. However, the Japanese government has requested Fukushima Prefecture to suspend the sale of any agricultural and dairy products it produces, he said.
To ensure the safety of all products imported from Japan, Wang said the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection had agreed to add radiation tests to its routine examination, said Liu Wen-shi (劉文熙), deputy director of the council’s Department of Radiation Protection.
“They can begin the process as soon as their equipment is ready,” he said. “This is not the first time they have been tasked with such a mission and I believe it will be easy for them.”
On the nuclear fallout, Wang said the council was monitoring the situation every five minutes. So far, all data has been within normal range.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS