The Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday said that testing conducted on the raw milk provided to 13 dairy product factories boasting the Certified Agricultural Standard (CAS) label showed that all the raw milk met national standards.
An investigative report purporting to find plasticizer and animal-use drug residues — indicating the possible use of antibiotics, contraceptives and painkillers — in up to 70 percent of Taiwanese dairy products was published by the Chinese-language Business Weekly last week, sparking public concern over the safety of the nation’s milk.
The COA first announced its test results on eight of the nine products the magazine said contained residues of plasticizers, painkillers and 48 types of antibiotics last week, saying all met national standards.
The Food and Drug Administration then announced on Monday that its tests for the residues of substances that the magazine had claimed to have found also found the products all met national standards.
The council yesterday said its additional testing for 86 types of animal-use drug residues, plasticizers and painkillers in raw milk from dairy farms that supply the 13 CAS-labeled dairy product companies showed all of them meeting the national standards.
The Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine added that it has completed inspections of animal drug usage records and equipment at 352 of the 560 dairy farms in Taiwan, and as of noon yesterday, no traces of illegal or abnormal drug usage had been found.
Later yesterday afternoon, the Dairy Farmer Association, the Dairy Association and the Taiwan Regional Association of Dairy Processors announced that they had jointly sent a legal attestation letter to Business Weekly asking it to apologize within seven days, or they will file a lawsuit or take other measures against the magazine
Dairy Farmer Association chairman Hung Chang-chin (洪長進) said the report had ruined the dairy farmers’ reputations, which took them many years to build.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
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