Following reports that fipronil-tainted eggs have been found in a supermarket despite a government recall, the Council of Agriculture (COA) should present a list of food that people can consume safely, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Culture and Communications Committee deputy director Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said yesterday.
The council said that 1,559,440 eggs from 44 affected farms had been sealed as of 6pm yesterday.
“All recall work is done,” the council said in a news release yesterday. “All eggs on the market are safe.”
On Sunday, local media reported that eggs from Changhua County’s Sinde (欣德) farm, one of the 44, had been found at Pxmart (全聯福利中心).
Sinde’s eggs contain 25.2 parts per billion (ppb) of fipronil, more than five times the EU standard of 5ppb that Taiwan follows, council data showed.
Later on Sunday, the council announced that retailers that had purchased eggs from affected farms must pull them from the shelves by 6pm today, or face fines of NT$60,000 to NT$1.5 million (US$1,989 to US$49,731) according to the Consumer Protection Act (消費者保護法).
“How could eggs from affected farms, which should have been recalled, be found on the market?” Hung said at a news conference in Taipei, accusing the government of being perfunctory in conducting food safety checks.
With people losing confidence in the nation’s food safety, the council should tell people what kinds of food they can consume safely while giving due punishment to farmers who break the law, he added.
“Violations by a few farmers should not have affected the egg industry of Changhua County and the entire nation,” KMT Changhua County Councilor Tsao Chia-hao (曹嘉豪) said.
“Egg farmers have had a hard time since eggs were found to contain the chemical dioxin in April,” a farmer in Changhua said in a hand-written statement presented by Tsao, who refused to reveal the farmer’s name.
Poultry farmers generally have limited knowledge about insecticides, for which the government should increase their training, the farmer said.
The 44 affected farms are found in central and southern Taiwan: 13 in Changhua, eight in Tainan, eight in Kaohsiung, seven in Chiayi County, five in Pingtung County, two in Nantou County and one in Taichung, council data showed.
As of yesterday, 37 farms have passed a second test for fipronil residue and were given the green light to sell their eggs on the market.
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