The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said that its latest pesticide residue testing on fresh fruit and vegetables resulted in a failure rate of 23.1 percent, with the failed items including strawberries and kumquats imported from Japan.
The department said the 52 tested items — 43 domestic and nine imported — tested last month were randomly sourced from markets, retailers, restaurants and beverage stores.
The results showed that 12 items failed the pesticide residue testing, including seven domestic items (a failure rate of 16.3 percent) and five imported items (a failure rate of 55.6 percent), it said.
Photo courtesy of Taipei Department of Health via CNA
The failed items included three types of strawberries, two types of kumquat, two types of Chinese kale, two types of Chinese cabbages, two types of garland chrysanthemum and a chili pepper.
Among the failed items, a garland chrysanthemum used at a hotpot restaurant was found to have three types of pesticide exceeding the maximum residue limit (MRL) — boscalid at 14.9 parts per million (ppm) (MRL at 4ppm), difenoconazole at 3.5ppm (MRL at 1ppm) and dimethomorph at 4.9ppm (MRL at 2.5ppm).
The five imported items are two types of kumquat and three types of strawberries, all imported from Japan by the same importer in New Taipei City, department data showed.
The imported strawberries were each found to have one type of pesticide exceeding the MRL, the imported kumquats were each found to have a type of pesticide that has been banned, while one was also found to have a pesticide exceeding its MRL.
Food and Drug Administration section head Chen Yi-ting (陳怡婷) said the high failure rate of imported items could be because the department focused on selecting food items with a higher risk of containing pesticide residues, and the high rate of imported strawberries from Japan detected with high levels of pesticide residue could be a seasonal issue.
She urged people to wash fresh fruit and vegetables thoroughly before eating, to prevent possible intake of pesticide residues.
Separately, the Food and Drug Administration yesterday said that 15 batches of strawberries imported from Japan in the past three months were found with excessive pesticide residues at border inspections, so the administration on Monday launched a batch-by-batch inspection mechanism for all imported strawberries from Japan.
Additional reporting by CNA
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