Nearly half of the nation’s coffee manufacturers recently inspected by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) failed to meet Good Hygienic Practice (GHP) standards, including several brand names.
Given the growing popularity of coffee, the administration worked with 10 local health departments in May and last month to examine 26 factories that manufactured packaged coffee drinks.
The factories were evaluated on the sources of their ingredients, usage of food additives, degree of conformation to GHP standards and if the drinks contained the mycotoxin ochratoxin or pesticide residues.
While all the coffee ingredients tested negative for ochratoxin or pesticides, 12 of the factories failed to achieve GHP standards, the agency said.
“They include a Barista Coffee Co factory in Taipei, which did not properly install insect protective curtains; King Car Industrial Co’s Yilan County factory, which was contaminated with disease-spreading insects; and Uni-President Enterprises Co’s factory in Taoyuan, which had waste piled up outside its refrigerated storage area,” said Hsieh Yi-fang (謝宜芳), an official with the agency’s Northern Center for Regional Administration.
Hsieh said all the factories found to have substandard conditions have made the necessary improvements and passed a second inspection before Wednesday last week.
In other developments, the New Taipei City Public Health Department yesterday released the results of a recent random test on ginger sold at traditional markets and supermarkets, or served in restaurants.
Of 15 tested samples, two were found to contain excessive levels of pesticide residues. One, which came from Nantou County, had 0.05 parts per million (ppm) of oxadiazon, compared with the maximum permissible level of less than 0.01ppm, the department said.
The other was purchased in a store in Taoyuan and was found to have 0.28ppm of oxamyl, higher than the maximum allowable amount of 0.2ppm, it added.
“The two cases have been referred to the health bureaus in the respective administrative regions. Manufacturers of the two products could face a maximum fine of NT$200 million [US$6.53 million],” the department said.
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