The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned the importation of cherries from four companies in the US for a month, after 11 batches of the fruit failed border inspections due to excessive pesticide residues, it said yesterday.
Thirty-three batches of cherries from the US have failed inspections in the past six months, the agency said.
The FDA’s weekly report on border inspections released yesterday showed 20 items that failed the latest inspections, including the US cherries, which contained mefentrifluconazole levels exceeding the 0.01 parts per million limit.
Photo: Wu Liang-yi, Taipei Times
Other items included mixed spices from Italy and truffles from Bulgaria with heavy metal contamination; banana paste from the Philippines containing excessive amounts of a sweetener; an instant noodle product from Vietnam containing excessive preservatives; and frozen chopped spinach and frozen cubed Chinese water chestnut from China, blueberries from Canada, romaine lettuce from Vietnam and an assorted cheese product from the US that contained excessive pesticide residues.
The items have been returned or destroyed after failing border inspections, the agency said.
FDA Deputy Director Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said that the batches of US cherries that have failed inspection in the past six months were from four companies.
“The FDA will temporarily refuse to accept import inspection applications from these four companies for a month — from Aug. 21 until Sept. 20,” he said.
The US companies are BV Farms Inc, Chelan Fresh Marketing, Gebbers Farms and Northern Fruit Co, the FDA said.
In addition to informing the companies by letter about the ban, the FDA also notified the American Institute in Taiwan, asking it to respond by Sept. 5, Lin said.
A total of 6,023.98 tonnes of US cherries in 1,883 batches have been inspected at the border this year, and as of Tuesday last week, 296.33 tonnes from 33 batches failed inspections, FDA data showed.
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