A shipment of Chinese mitten crabs from China was found to contain dioxin concentrations 2.6 times higher than the safety limit, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday.
The 14.7-tonne consignment of tainted crabs was intercepted at the border early last month and had been returned or destroyed before they could reach local markets, it said.
Samples of the crabs showed a dioxin level equivalent to 9.2 picograms per gram (pg/g) wet weight and polychlorinated biphenyl level equivalent to 10.6pg/g, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Deputy Director-General Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said.
Photo courtesy of the Food and Drug Administration
These values exceeded the safety limits by 2.6 and 1.6 times respectively, he said.
Taiwan had certified 31 China-based aquafarms for exports of Chinese mitten crabs to the nation and failing a safety test would result in decertification, he said, adding that this means the list of authorized importers has dwindled to 16.
Citing FDA regulations, Lin said imported Chinese mitten crabs are tested for 65 types of substances, including veterinary drugs, heavy metals and dioxin.
The crabs can be temporarily stored in designated facilities if testing takes more than five days, he added.
Imported parcels that failed safety inspection are returned to their place of origin or destroyed, Lin said.
The nation’s safety mechanisms for imported Chinese mitten crabs are well-established and the public can safely consume any that had been allowed for sales domestically, he said.
According to Fisheries Agency data, China exported 387.5 tonnes of mitten crabs to Taiwan in 2017 before widely reported scandals involving dioxin contamination in the following year reduced the amount to 200.7 tonnes.
China in 2019 exported 174.3 tonnes of the crabs and more than 250 tonnes each year from 2020 to 2022, when 6.4 tonnes were rejected for containing excessive dioxin levels, and another 211.5 tonnes last year, the records showed.
Experts warn that dioxin consists of 419 chemical compounds and is a confirmed carcinogen.
Short-term exposure to high doses can cause skin disorders and liver damage, while long-term low-dose exposure might increase the risk of cancer, damage the immune system and pose risks to pregnant women, experts said.
Additional reporting by CNA
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
RSS