A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit.
Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide.
Photo courtesy of the Food and Drug Administration
The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all imported food items that fail the border tests, FDA Deputy Director-General Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said.
The agency would conduct shipment-by-shipment inspections of the basil pesto imported by Costco from the same place of origin and with the same serial number, Lin said.
From Sept. 4 last year to Monday last week, the FDA conducted border inspections on 425 shipments of sauces from the US, weighing a combined 1,609.53 tonnes, the agency said.
Seven shipments tested positive for ethylene oxide, it said.
Meanwhile, two shipments of fresh strawberries, both imported by New Taipei City-based Fruit Paradise Trading Co from Japan, were held back after being found to contain excessive amounts of pesticides.
Tests found that the strawberries contained traces of mepanipyrim, bifenazate, flonicamid and fludioxonil in concentrations of 1.1 parts per million (ppm), 2.7ppm, 0.02ppm and 2.1ppm respectively.
The two shipments of strawberries were from the same company in Nagasaki, and imports of strawberries from that company would be suspended for a month, Lin said.
Over the past six months, the FDA tested 676 shipments of fresh Japanese strawberries at the border, with 30 failing inspections, mostly due to excessive pesticide residue, Lin said.
From June 1 last year, all fresh strawberry imports from Japan have been subject to shipment-by-shipment inspections, which would continue until at least April 30 next year, Lin said.
Apart from the strawberries and the basil pesto, 11 other imports of food items failed border inspections from Jan. 16 to Feb. 23, FDA data showed.
The shipments included mung beans from Myanmar, curry powder from Japan, fresh nectarines from Australia and juice concentrate from Malaysia.
The mung beans, curry powder and nectarines were found to have excessive pesticide residue, while the juice concentrate had excessive amounts of sulfur dioxide, a chemical that can be used as a bleaching agent, FDA data showed.
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