Five days after staging a protest against a government plan to lift a ban on imports of US beef containing residues of the feed additive ractopamine, local hog farmers face allegations of using banned leanness-enhancing feed additives that are reportedly much more toxic to humans.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) told a press conference yesterday that seven out of 10 pork products tested were found to contain traces of salbutamol as well as cimaterol, adding that both are more toxic than ractopamine.
Tsai said that tests conducted by I-Mei Foods Co’s (義美食品) food safety lab, as shown in a paper dated March 7, revealed that traces of salbutamol and cimaterol were found in two sausage products from T-Ham (台畜) and Hsin Tung Yang (新東陽).
Photo: Hsieh Chia-chun, Taipei Times
The paper showed that 9.16 parts per billion (ppb) of salbutamol and 4.98ppb of cimaterol were found in T-Ham’s sausage, while 0.68ppb of salbutamol and 2.98ppb of cimaterol in Hsin Tung Yang’s sausage.
The paper also showed tests on frozen backbone, ground pork meat, skin, pork belly, kidneys and liver, which Tsai said were bought at supermarkets, were found to contain salbutamol residues ranging from 0.22ppb to 0.37ppb.
T-Ham and Hsin Tung Yang yesterday rejected the lab’s findings.
Tsai said pig farmers favor using salbutamol over ractopamine as a leanness-enhancing feed additive for pigs because ractopamine is more expensive.
Tsai said he publicized the test results to highlight the problem of illegal use of leanness-enhancing feed additives and urged health authorities to intensify inspections of meat products to safeguard public health.
He declined to explain how he obtained the test results.
“Health authorities should conduct residue tests not only for ractopamine, but also other types of meat-enhancing feed additives,” he said.
When asked by reporters to verify the test results, Wu Rong-tsan (吳榮燦), an associate general manager at I-Mei Foods, said its food safety lab did not provide Tsai with the results because the lab was not commissioned by Tsai to conduct the tests.
“Since the issue has drawn a lot of attention, there has been an increase in the number of cases sent to the lab for testing. In accordance with business ethics, we cannot comment on test results or give the results to people who are not our clients,” Wu said.
Tsai’s allegations came one day after the Executive Yuan issued a press release saying the government had recently received complaints that residues of leanness-enhancing feed additives had been found in pork products on the market.
In response to Premier Sean Chen’s (陳冲) demand that the Department of Health and the Council of Agriculture look into the matter and propose measures to address the problem, the council yesterday announced that starting today, local hog farmers would be required to provide certificates proving their pigs were not fed meat-enhancing additives, as part of a self-management program to ensure meat safety.
Violators will face stepped-up inspections, steep fines and even criminal charges, it added.
Hsu Kuei-sen (許桂森), head of the council’s Department of Animal Husbandry, said on Tuesday that under the program, the nation’s 9,800 pig farmers would have to provide such guarantees every time they make a delivery to customers.
“If they don’t sign the written guarantee, their names will be published, which should strengthen the management system,” Hsu said.
According to the council, there are 25 drugs that promote lean meat in food animals and all are banned in Taiwan.
Yang Guan-chang (楊冠章), director of the Republic of China Swine Association, said that he supported the proposed measure because it would get rid of “a few rogue farmers” and regain the public’s trust in the safety of local meat products.
Lai Shiow-suey (賴秀穗), a professor emeritus at National Taiwan University’s School of Veterinary Medicine, was quoted by local media as saying that “salbutamol is 2,000 times more toxic than the more commonly known ractopamine,” describing the drug as a substance that is not easy to metabolize and tends to stay in the body for a long time.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS