Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) yesterday said that although all pig parts containing ractopamine could be imported from the US, the delicious taste of local pork would give it an advantage.
There has been public debate over the health risks of eating US pork and beef since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) announced on Friday last week that the ban on importing US pork containing ractopamine and US beef from cattle older than 30 months would be lifted.
Asked what US pork parts could be imported, and whether ground meat containing local and US pork would be inspected under the new policy, Chen said that the government would allow all US pork parts to be imported and that mixed ground meat would need a label listing all countries of origin.
He made the remarks during a weekly news briefing at the Central Epidemic Command Center in Taipei.
Chen said he believes that the maximum allowable levels of ractopamine in pork recommended by the Codex Alimentarius Commission are science-based standards, but the Food and Drug Administration continues to collect data on local eating habits to set the best standard for the nation.
Chen said that “food safety is only one of the concerns” when asked why he said in a radio interview on Monday that most people would not experience negative health effects from eating pork containing ractopamine, even if they ate it every day for the rest of their lives, while the Council of Agriculture still insists on banning ractopamine from the local pig farming industry.
“Good taste and competitiveness are also important,” he said, adding that local pork is tasty without having to add ractopamine to the feed.
The existing methods of raising and slaughtering pigs produces safe and tasty pork — the advantage of domestic pork — so there is no need to change, he said.
Asked about a media report that cited a health practitioner as saying that the Ministry of Health and Welfare seemed to be pressuring ministry-affiliated hospitals to endorse the new import policy, Chen said that the ministry did not “pressure” them, but only asked them, as health professionals, to share health and nutrition information with the public.
The hospitals, as part of the public sector, should promote the government’s policies in their professional capacity, especially in rural areas where access to information is limited, Chen said.
Starting next week, the ministry would go to markets across the nation to demonstrate the use of the country-of-origin labels, he added.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents
RSS