Foreign manufacturers of a food import flagged for a serious safety infraction would be from tomorrow at the earliest banned from exporting to Taiwan on the first offense, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Tuesday, amid a spike in food products from China failing border inspections.
Current regulations require several stages of testing according to risk level, with a ban only implemented if conditions are not improved after warnings.
The zero-tolerance policy announced this week is the strictest import food safety standard the FDA has ever initiated.
Photo courtesy of Chiayi City Public Health Bureau
It comes amid an increase in food imports flagged as having traces of seriously harmful additives, particularly from China.
Of particular concern are chili powder imports with traces of Sudan III, a red industrial dye banned from use in food processing that is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a Category 3 carcinogen.
Earlier this week, prosecutors questioned nine employees implicated in a chili powder case discovered last month, with the Yunlin District Court on Tuesday approving the detention of one employee suspected of falsifying a safety report to cover up the presence of Sudan III.
A Yunlin District Prosecutors’ Office spokesperson said the head of research and development at spice vendor Chiseng Hong Ltd (濟生), a man surnamed Kuo (郭), has been ordered to be detained, while a subordinate, a woman surnamed Kuo, has been released on NT$50,000 bail.
The two are suspected of contravening the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法) by falsifying a report on a seasoning powder from quality testing company SGS Taiwan (SGS台灣), saying it did not contain Sudan III.
The employees allegedly falsified the report to prevent the product’s clients, including retailer PX Mart Co (全聯實業), from thinking the product was not safe.
The seasoning was sourced from New Taipei City-based raw material dealer Bao Hsin Enterprises Co (保欣企業) and supplied by Chinese company Sanhe Drug Co (三禾藥業).
The case of Sudan dyes came to light when the Chiseng product was tested by Yunlin County health authorities on Jan. 30.
The discovery led to random inspections that have so far found four batches of problematic chili powder supplied by Bao Hsin, the FDA said, adding that 21,235kg of the powder had been recalled as of Monday.
The agency’s latest announcement of flagged imports on Tuesday showed another batch of chili powder, mushroom seasoning and dried bitter melon from China with excessive pesticide levels.
Additional reporting by CNA
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
RSS