A survey recently showed that about 10 percent of fresh fruit and vegetables and 27 percent of their preserved or dried counterparts sold in Taipei violate food safety regulations, the Taipei City Government’s Department of Health said yesterday.
With the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday expected to increase food demand, the health department conducted three series of food safety inspections on products from stores around the city: one on preserved and dry fruit and vegetables; another on dried fruit and vegetables; and a third on seafood and meat products.
Among the 100 samples of dried fruits and vegetables tested, 27 were found to contain excessive levels of additives. Seven of the products had levels of flavoring agents beyond the acceptable limit, seven had preservative levels that were too high and four contained amaranth — an artificial food coloring banned in Taiwan.
Photo: CNA
The department found that of the 10 preserved fruit samples it tested, six contained excessive levels of saccharin — an artificial sweetener — while seven of 17 preserved vegetables were found to have preservatives exceeding allowable limits.
Chen Li-chi (陳立奇), the director of the department’s Food and Drug Division, said the companies responsible for the products have been asked to recall them, and if further investigations reveal that the firms are practicing illegal manufacturing, they may face fines of between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000 (US$1,000 and US$5,000), as stipulated by the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法).
Three of the companies required to initiate recalls were repeat offenders identified in last year’s survey, so their names have been published on the department’s Web site, officials said.
Photo: Lin Hsiang-mei, Taipei Times
The inspections carried out on fresh fruit and vegetables showed that 20 out of the 69 samples tested contained pesticide residues, but only seven products contained illegal pesticides or residues that exceeded the established limits.
The producers of the offending fresh fruit and vegetables were also asked to pulled the produce off the shelves and may face fines of between NT$60,000 and NT$6 million, the department said.
It added that to reduce the possibility of ingesting pesticide residue, consumers should clean any soil off produce, cut off any roots, soak it in clean water for about 10 to 20 minutes and wash thoroughly with tap water at least twice before cooking.
A separate inspection conducted on seafood and meat products showed that all 104 samples — 58 seafood items and 46 meat items — had passed food safety examinations, the health department said.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taiwan is bracing for a political shake-up as a majority of directly elected lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) face the prospect of early removal from office in an unprecedented wave of recall votes slated for July 26 and Aug. 23. The outcome of the public votes targeting 26 KMT lawmakers in the next two months — and potentially five more at later dates — could upend the power structure in the legislature, where the KMT and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) currently hold a combined majority. After denying direct involvement in the recall campaigns for months, the