Officials in Greater Tainan and Nantou are on the lookout for meat products containing residues of growth-enhancement drugs after a sample of ractopamine-tainted beef was found in Chiayi County.
The owner of the restaurant chain where the sample was taken said that it had come from New Zealand.
Health officials in Greater Tainan yesterday confirmed that the beef sample contained 1.29 parts per billion (ppb) of ractopamine.
They said the meat in question was a combination of different cuts, possibly made up of layers of beef from different sources.
The restaurant said it had bought beef from a company in Greater Kaohsiung that is supplied mainly by Shuh Sen Co (樹森開發) in Taipei, one of the major importers of US beef in Taiwan. The company has warehouses in Keelung and Greater Kaohsiung.
The issue of US beef imports containing residues of the feed additive ractopamine has stirred a storm of controversy in Taiwan in recent weeks because the government is considering relaxing the ban on the drug to increase imports of US beef.
On Monday, 7,490kg of US beef imported by Shuh Sen found to have ractopamine residue was destroyed in Taipei.
On Monday, health officials in Tainan said that a sample of another beef shipment contained 10.93ppb of ractopamine.
Also on Monday, health officials found 0.88ppb of zilpaterol, another kind of growth additive, in a sample of beef, reportedly from Australia, sold at a supermarket in Chiayi County.
In Nantou County yesterday, a sample of sliced beef was also found to contain zilpaterol. The beef, supplied by a company known as Yukuo Co (裕國冷凍), had been sold to a nationwide supermarket chain under the label “Yukuo sliced beef imported from Australia.” The company said it had delivered 3,000 packages of the sliced beef to the PXmart (全聯實業) supermarket chain store since November last year.
Nantou Health Bureau officials have started an investigation to track Yukuo’s upstream suppliers and to find out whether beef from other countries is being sold as Australian products.
As in Taiwan, the use of both zilpaterol and ractopamine is banned in beef production in Australia, according to the Australian representative office in Taipei.
Zilpaterol hydrochloride is an adrenergic agonist drug currently licensed in Mexico and South Africa as a feed additive for cattle at slaughter age.
The Taipei MRT is open all night tonight following New Year’s Eve festivities, and is offering free rides from nearby Green Line stations. Taipei’s 2025 New Year’s Eve celebrations kick off at Taipei City Hall Square tonight, with performances from the boy band Energy, the South Korean girl group Apink, and singers Gigi Leung (梁詠琪) and Faith Yang (楊乃文). Taipei 101’s annual New Year’s firework display follows at midnight, themed around Taiwan’s Premier12 baseball championship. Estimates say there will be about 200,000 people in attendance, which is more than usual as this year’s celebrations overlap with A-mei’s (張惠妹) concert at Taipei Dome. There are
LOOKING FOR WHEELS: The military is seeking 8x8 single-chassis vehicles to test the new missile and potentially replace the nation’s existing launch vehicles, the source said Taiwan is developing a hypersonic missile based on the Ching Tien (擎天) supersonic cruise missile, and a Czech-made truck has been tentatively selected as its launch vehicle, a source said yesterday. The Ching Tien, formerly known as Yun Feng (雲峰, “Cloud Peak”), is a domestically developed missile with a range of 1,200km to 2,000km being deployed in casemate-type positions as of last month, an official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The hypersonic missile to be derived from the Ching Tien would feature improved range and a mobile launch platform, while the latter would most likely be a 12x12 single chassis
UP AND DOWN: The route would include a 16.4km underground section from Zuoying to Fongshan and a 9.5km elevated part from Fongshan to Pingtung Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday confirmed a project to extend the high-speed rail (HSR) to Pingtung County through Kaohsiung. Cho made the announcement at a ceremony commemorating the completion of a dome at Kaohsiung Main Station. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications approved the HSR expansion in 2019 using a route that branches off a line from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District (左營). The project was ultimately delayed due to a lack of support for the route. The Zuoying route would have trains stop at the Zuoying Station and return to a junction before traveling southward to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝).
Parts of the nation, including in the south, could experience temperatures as low as 7°C early tomorrow morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. A strong continental cold air mass coupled with the effect of radiative cooling would bring cold weather to several northern cities and counties, and could even affect areas as far south as Tainan early tomorrow, the CWA said. Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties would experience temperatures below 10°C until this evening, according to cold surge advisories issued by the weather agency. The weather across the nation is forecast to remain
RSS