Food safety and nutrition experts from the Department of Health (DOH) have reached an agreement to cap the allowable residue level for the livestock leanness-enhancing drug ractopamine at 10 parts per billion (ppb), according to a department official.
The experts decided the limit — equivalent to 10 micrograms of ractopamine residue per 1kg of beef — at a meeting on Tuesday, Food and Drug Administration Director-General Kang Jaw-jou (康照洲) said.
The experts based their decision on a maximum safe daily intake of 1 microgram for an adult, which would mean the ractopamine residue in a Taiwanese adult who consumed an average of 12.85g of beef per day would be as little as 0.5 percent of 1 microgram, Kang said.
The department’s meeting to decide the maximum allowable level of ractopamine residue in beef came after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment to the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) last week, paving the way for beef imports containing the leanness--enhancing drug.
As soon as the amendments takes effect, the Department will formally communicate the allowable level to the public and make sure the standard is adhered to, Kang said.
In addition, efforts will be stepped up to check beef imports at the border and beef being sold in domestic markets, he added.
According to the department, since the health authorities began efforts on March 20 to stop imported beef containing ractopamine residue from entering the market, inspectors have discovered ractopamine in six out of 490 batches of imported beef inspected, as of Sunday. Five batches were shipped back to where they came from, while the sixth was destroyed, the department said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS