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Toxic dragon fruit imports distributed

A shipment of dragon fruit imported from Vietnam earlier this month had been found to contain pesticide residues, but about 18,000kg of the tainted fruit has already been sold, food safety inspection officials said on Friday.

Hsieh Ting-hung (謝定宏), deputy director of the Bureau of Food Safety, said samples of the fruit, imported by Kieunga Import-Export Trading Co, were found to contain 0.27 parts per million (ppm) of prochloraz, a pesticide used in the cultivation of a variety of crops such as small berries, mushrooms and rice.

Hsieh said prochloraz is not highly toxic and the testing standard for small berries is set at below 1 ppm, but no prochloraz residue is permitted in dragon fruit.

The Pingtung-based trading company had sold a large portion of the tainted shipment before the test results were confirmed, but officials from the Department of Health and local health authorities confiscated the remaining 34 cases, each weighing 9.5 kg.

The company has been asked to produce a detailed customer list to facilitate tracking and recall of the tainted dragon fruit, also known as pitaya, Hsieh said.

It may be fined as much as NT$200,000, Hsieh said, adding that it might be deprived of the right to import goods for six months.

Also See: Focus on food safety fundamentals
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