A shipment of instant tea from Thailand has not been allowed into Taiwan after it was found to contain excessive residues of the pesticide fipronil, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
The vanilla-flavored red tea was contracted by Bos Lifestyle Co (啵獅國際), a Taipei-based company distributor of the product in Taiwan, the FDA said.
The 5-tonne shipment, produced by Cha Thai International Co, was found to contain 0.005 parts per million (ppm) of fipronil, which was in excess of the maximum allowed residue level of 0.002ppm, the FDA said.
Cha Thai, founded in 1945, has distributors in more than a dozen countries worldwide and operates numerous tea shops under its ChaTraMue brand in Brunei, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar and Singapore.
Its vanilla-flavored red tea was one of 14 imported items barred recently by the Customs Administration in the FDA’s latest safety measures to prevent consumption of foods containing high residues of pesticides, heavy metals and bleaching agents.
Other products that were recently denied entry because of high pesticide levels included green tea and fresh radish from Japan; Chinese cabbage, garlic and white sesame from Indonesia; and black sesame from Paraguay, the agency said.
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