The government yesterday launched an online “pork dashboard,” which showed no pork imports since Friday, when the nation started allowing imports of pork containing residue of the leanness-enhancing additive ractopamine.
A collaboration between the Council of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the dashboard — ifi.fda.gov.tw/ifi/pfp/cp/pfpcp0706q.jsp — showed that from Friday to Sunday domestically produced pork totaled 3,048 tonnes.
The nation also produced 2,811 tonnes of pork liver, kidney and other edible pig organs, it showed.
Photo courtesy of the New Taipei City Education Department
Statistics on pork products are collected and compiled by the council, the ministry and the Customs Administration, and uploaded to the dashboard before 9am on workdays.
It includes information on domestically produced pork, including the number of pigs slaughtered and weights of pork and edible pig organs. It also contains data on imports of pork and edible pig organs, including weight and the number of batches of pork and pig organs containing ractopamine residue, the council said.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday inspected how pork imports are examined batch by batch at the Port of Taipei.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
“Taiwan is a nation built on trade. We want to sell our products to the world, but we must also allow other countries to sell their products to us,” he said.
“The government’s responsibility is to stipulate science-based standards which conform with those stipulated by the international community. All government agencies are prepared to inspect imported pork batch by batch, clearly label imported pork and follow relevant procedures,” he added.
Poultry Sale and Development Association honorary chairman Lee Chun-lai (李春來) said that US pork arriving this month is not likely to contain ractopamine residue, as the orders were placed in August or September last year, which were backlogged because of a global shortage of refrigerated cargo containers and disruptions in shipping schedules.
Consumers should not worry, as many of the companies importing meat from other countries have pledged not to bring in pork containing ractopamine residue, Lee said, adding that no company has so far this year placed orders for US pork.
Locally produced pork dominates the domestic market with about a 90 percent share, he said.
Of the 10 percent imported from abroad, the US accounts for only about 10 percent, he said, adding that it could be easily replaced by pork from Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands and Spain.
New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) also inspected meat processing companies in the city’s Shulin District (樹林).
Nobody can guarantee that businesses would never import pork containing ractopamine, even though they have all said they would not, Hou said.
The real test begins when there are companies that want to import pork containing ractopamine, he added.
“Consumers should have a way of knowing that imported pork containing ractopamine residue has arrived, so they can decide for themselves whether they want to purchase it or not,” Hou said.
Additional Reporting by Chiu Shu-yu
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
One person was killed and another seven injured today when a tourist shuttle bus plunged 30m to 40m down a ravine in Nantou County, the Tourism Administration said. The bus is suspected to have suddenly accelerated out of control near the flower center of the Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area, a popular attraction during cherry blossom season. Of the eight onboard, a 66-year-old man was killed, four were seriously injured and three sustained minor injuries, including the driver. The Nantou County Police Department said it received a report of the incident at 12:15pm and dispatched seven teams to assist. All surviving passengers have been transferred
RSS