Two shipments of avocados imported from the US by Costco Taiwan were seized at the border due to elevated levels of cadmium, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
A shipment of 990kg of fresh avocados from Riverside, California-based Index Fresh Inc was found to contain 0.19 milligrams of the heavy metal cadmium per kilogram of avocados (mg/kg), while a shipment of 1,423.8kg from Oxnard, California-based Mission Produce Inc was found to contain 0.06mg/kg — both higher than the maximum permitted level of 0.05mg/kg.
The FDA said that seized products are either returned to their country of origin or destroyed.
Over the past six months, Costco Taiwan has imported four shipments of avocados from the US that have been seized after failing a border inspection, leading the FDA to adopt more stringent inspection measures for US avocados imported by the company, FDA official Lin Hsu-yang (林旭陽) said.
The FDA had asked Costco to improve quality assurance measures for avocado imports, while the company responded that it was working with its US suppliers to solve the problem, Lin said.
The avocados were one of 21 products in a weekly FDA report on imports seized for food safety violations.
Other seized imports, including fresh apples from the US, fresh strawberries and muskmelons from Japan, jujubes from China and green asparagus from Thailand, were found to contain elevated levels of pesticide residues.
Several shipments of fresh apples from the US were also found to contain elevated levels of the insecticide pyrimethanil, Lin said, adding that the FDA would begin to inspect 20 to 50 percent of US apples, up from 2 to 10 percent.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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