Several batches of oysters and avocados imported from the US have been intercepted by customs officials after being found to contain excessive levels of the heavy metal cadmium, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
Three of the eight shipments that failed inspections this week originated in the US, including 405kg of Pacific oysters and a total of 3,796.8kg of avocados imported by two separate companies, the FDA said at its weekly briefing.
The oysters, imported by Jing Yuan International Trading Co, were found to contain 2 parts per million (ppm) of cadmium, exceeding the regulatory limit of 1ppm for oysters, FDA Deputy Director-General Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said.
Photo courtesy of the Food and Drug Administration
As a result of the violation, the FDA would tighten inspections for Jing Yuan, increasing the sampling rate from the standard 2 to 10 percent to a stricter 20 to 50 percent, Lin said.
In addition, Chiawei Enterprise Co and Ourmart Marketing Co imported 2,531.2kg and 1,265.6kg of substandard avocados respectively.
The shipments were found to contain cadmium levels ranging from 0.08 to 0.12ppm, surpassing Taiwan’s permissible limit of 0.05ppm.
The FDA also raised the inspection rate for the avocado importers to between 20 and 50 percent, Lin said.
All noncompliant products were either returned to their country of origin or destroyed at the border and did not enter the local market, the FDA said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS