Starting next year, Japanese companies intending to import teas, candies or cookies may have to submit a radiation detection report issued by a local authority, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
“The administration on Tuesday published a draft regulation requiring importers of tea products, snacks, cookies and grain beverages to provide not only a country of origin certificate, but also a radiation assessment report issued by the Japanese government,” agency interim Director-General Chiang Yu-mei (姜郁美) said.
Chiang said public opinion on the proposal will be sought over the next 60 days and the measure is expected to be implemented early next year if no objections are raised.
At present, only vegetable, fruit, aquatic products, baby formula, dairy products and water imported from Japan require a radiation detection report, with the exception of all food products from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures, which have been banned since the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster in March 2011.
Chiang’s announcement came one day after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) raised questions on Facebook about the FDA’s regulations on Japanese food imports since the disaster.
Lin wrote that she had taken members of a non-governmental organization to inspect the agency’s border examinations and Keelung Customs last month.
“I learned two things from the trip. Even though the government has suspended food product imports from the five Japanese prefectures, it believes whatever importers put in the ‘place of origin’ column,” Lin said.
Second, although in theory eight types of foodstuffs from Japan are subjected to batch-by-batch inspections, the FDA only conducts examinations on a small portion of each batch of imports, Lin said.
“In reality, it is more of a batch-by-batch random examination,” she said.
Lin also questioned Uni-President Group’s decision to start selling a wide range of Japanese tea products in the past three years.
“Do you know that following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the amount of Japanese tea leaves imported to Taiwan has greatly increased, not decreased?” Lin said.
Uni-President is the nation’s largest food conglomerate. It has also been caught up in the latest tainted oil scandal.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all