A shipment of instant noodles from Vietnam and another from Japan were seized at the border after they were found to contain residue of a banned pesticide, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a statement on Tuesday.
A 1,458kg shipment of Acecook Hao Hao sour shrimp flavor instant noodles imported from Vietnam by Taiwan’s Qian Yu Food Enterprise Co was confiscated after 0.382mg/kg of ethylene oxide was detected in the product’s vegetable seasoning sachets, the FDA said.
In addition, a 37.92kg shipment of Sunaoshi cup instant ramen from Japan, imported by Taiwan’s Excel Right Trading Co, was also confiscated and destroyed after 0.209mg/kg of ethylene oxide was detected, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Food and Drug Administration
Ethylene oxide, a widely used industrial product, is banned in foods in Taiwan as it is classified as a first-class carcinogen.
Long-term exposure can increase the risk of cancer, and cause central nervous or peripheral neuropathy, according to the FDA.
The shipments were among 13 imported food and food container items that failed recent safety tests at the border, the agency said in its weekly report on substandard food imports.
Such items are either returned to the country of origin or destroyed, it said.
Over the past six months, six shipments of instant noodles with meat imported from Vietnam failed customs inspection, FDA data showed.
Since Aug. 29, the FDA has stepped up inspections of imported instant noodles with meat from Vietnam and have conducted batch-by-batch checks of shipments brought in by Qian Yu because its imports have failed inspections three times in six months, FDA Northern Center head Chen Ching-yu (陳慶裕) said.
With five shipments of instant noodles imported from Japan also failing inspections over the past six months, the FDA starting from Aug. 8 increased the percentage of such imports checked from 2 to 10 percent to about 20 to 50 percent, Chen said.
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