The Department of Health (DOH) yesterday promised to conduct vigorous inspections of US bone-in beef after the first batch of six packages of US beef arrived in Taiwan after a five-year hiatus.
The first batch arrived on EVA Air flight BR-025, which left Seattle and arrived in Taiwan yesterday morning.
Food and Drug Administration Director-General Kang Jaw-jou (康照洲) attended the first inspection as the 163.7kg of US T-bone steaks and ribs were being examined by officials from the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine and customs agents.
“We carried out strict tests on this batch in accordance with the law so it may take some time for the results to come out,” Kang said.
Kang said the first batch of US bone-in beef contained three boxes of T-bone steaks weighing 92.6kg and three boxes of ribs weighing 71.1kg.
They were cut on Jan. 5 and packed on Jan. 7.
After the beef went through an X-ray machine, inspectors checked the paperwork, opened the boxes and took samples for analysis.
Kang said that the results would be available within five days.
Initial results showed that the batch was qualified for import because it had quarantine and export papers attached and did not include six products considered hazardous — ground beef, beef offal and other parts such as skulls, eyes and intestines banned from entering the country in line with an amendment passed by the Legislative Yuan that reversed a protocol signed by Taipei and Washignton last October.
Officials were set to also inspect the beef in each of the six packages to ensure that the products are safe for consumption, Kang said.
Any of the meat found unacceptable would be shipped back to the US or destroyed, he said.
Imports of US bone-in beef have been the center of a dispute for months in the county because of widespread public fears of mad cow disease.
The second batch of about 105kg of US bone-in beef is scheduled to arrive next Friday.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JIMMY CHUANG
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
RSS