Random inspections of the more than 30,000 tonnes of tea that Taiwan imports annually showed that between 3.5 and 3.9 percent contain pesticide residues exceeding legally permissible levels, with tea from India having the highest failure rates, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
The FDA said that a total of 21,379 consignments of tea, or about 98,523 tonnes, were imported between 2013 and the first quarter of this year, with the agency conducting inspections for pesticide residues on 5,771 consignments, or 27 percent.
FDA Northern Center for Regional Administration official Wang Te-yuan (王德原) said that 217 batches failed the inspections — a failure rate of 3.76 percent.
The majority of tea Taiwan imports come from Vietnam, Sri Lanka and China, the FDA said, adding that Vietnam exports mostly green or black tea to the nation, while Sri Lanka mostly exports black tea and China pu-er tea.
Black tea accounted for about 45.4 percent of all tea imported during the period, followed by green tea (32.5 percent), partially fermented tea (12.5 percent) and pu-er tea (9.6 percent), the FDA said.
“The three countries that had the highest failure rates were India, Japan and Vietnam, with failure rates of 8.1 percent, 7.7 percent and 4.6 percent respectively,” FDA Northern Center for Regional Administration official Hsiao Hui-wen (蕭惠文) said, adding that the items that failed inspections were returned or destroyed.
Hsiao said one possible reason why Japanese tea had relatively high failure rates was because all food imports from Japan are subjected to batch-by-batch inspections since the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster in 2011, and because Japanese regulations on the use of thiacloprid — an insecticide often used on tea leaves — are looser than those of Taiwan.
Wang said that to enhance food safety management, starting from July 31 last year, tea importers are required to examine their tea products for pesticide residues at least once each season or per batch.
Wang added that starting July 31, food companies will also be required to introduce food traceability systems.
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