Several shipments of fried chicken, rice cake sauce and instant noodles imported from South Korea were seized by customs after being found to contain excessive amounts of preservatives or banned pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
The FDA released a list of 16 items of food and containers that had failed customs inspections and were stopped at the border.
The products included a shipment of spicy cream chicken sauce, honey oligosaccaride chicken sauce and rice cake chicken sauce imported from South Korea by Kaohsiung-based TMT Enterprise Co.
Photo courtesy of FDA
All the problematic products were returned to their country of origin or destroyed, the FDA said.
The vinegar and soy sauce in the sauces contained preservatives in amounts exceeding legal limits, FDA Northern Center head Chen Ching-yu (陳慶裕) said.
It was the first time TMT Enterprise has contravened the regulations, Chen said.
Photo courtesy of FDA
In addition, a batch of seafood-flavored instant noodles also from South Korea was rejected due to excessive amounts of the banned pesticide ethylene oxide, the FDA said.
Customs inspectors also found other substandard products, including a shipment of Regent Mochi Ube, a Japanese-style glutinous rice cake, imported from the Philippines which failed to comply with Taiwan’s food preservative regulations, as it contained dehydrated acetic acid, Chen said.
Dehydrated acetic acid is only allowed to be used in cheese, cream and similar products, but cannot be used in biscuits, cookies and cakes, Chen said.
In addition, a shipment of lion’s mane mushroom, or monkey’s head mushroom, from China was also found to contain excessive levels of pesticide residue, Chen said.
It was the 15th time in six months that Chinese lion’s mane mushrooms had failed inspections, Chen said, adding that the FDA began batch-by-batch inspections of the product on May 2.
The agency on Tuesday last week said that it had asked the Chinese supplier to provide a written explanation by Aug. 3 on why excessive pesticide residues were frequently detected in its shipments.
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