The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said a random inspection uncovered six types of tea with excessive levels of pesticide residues.
The department conducted the inspection of tea-leaf and floral tea products sold at supermarkets, retailers, tea shops and beverage shops in the city, testing them for pesticide residues, Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) said.
Of the 50 items tested — including 26 tea-leaf products and 24 floral tea products — six failed, or 12 percent, Lin said.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei Department of Health
The failed products include two rose tea products, two lavender tea products, and one of each blue tea (Clitoria ternatea, also known as butterfly pea tea) and an osmanthus tea product, she said.
They were each found to have one to seven types of pesticides at residue levels exceeding the Standards for Pesticide Residue Limits in Foods (農藥殘留容許量標準), she said.
The blue tea product was imported as “personal use” and the importer did not apply to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for inspection of imported foods and related products according to the law, Lin said.
The department has asked the retailers to remove the products from shelves and prohibited them from selling the tea, she said.
As one of the rose teas and the osmanthus tea were supplied from other cities or counties, their local health departments have been informed, while the sources of the remaining products are in Taipei and would be dealt with according to the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), she said.
The blue tea product was found to contain residues of pesticides including cypermethrin, fipronil, fipronil sulfone, imidacloprid, metalaxyl, pyridaben and lambda-cyhalothrin, all exceeding their maximum allowable limits, department data showed.
Products that were found with excessive levels of pesticide residues could face a fine of NT$60,000 to NT$200 million (US$1,848 to US$6.2 million), while importing food products and selling them without applying for FDA inspection can result in a fine of NT$30,000 to NT$3 million, Lin said.
The department urges tea importers to develop a food safety monitoring plan, including enhancing self-initiated inspections by sending ingredients, semi-finished products and final products for regular examination, she said, adding that retailers should keep products’ certificates of origin for better traceability.
Consumers can report food safety issues to the city’s 1999 hotline (or call (02) 2720-8889 if outside Taipei), the department said.
Inspection results are available on its official Web site.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS