Locally produced beef has won Halal certification, which means it is acceptable for consumption by Muslims, the Council of Agriculture (COA) reported on Thursday.
Noting that Halal is an Arabic word meaning "lawful," COA officials said Taiwan-produced beef with Halal certification is now available from a local store.
The shop owner, with assistance from the COA, the Taipei Grand Mosque and a national beef trade association, only managed to make the Halal-certified beef available after months of painstaking efforts -- from the building of a special ranch where cattle are raised to the construction of a Halal abattoir and a Halal packaging facility, the COA officials said.
SANITATION
Officials from the Taipei Grand Mosque said the beef from the specially designated store meets high food security and sanitation standards and is absolutely free of excess water, which is sometimes injected by unscrupulous dealers into local cattle prior to slaughter in order to artificially increase their market weight.
The availability of the Halal beef will help meet the demand from Taiwan's approximately 150,000 Muslims, COA officials said.
OTHER MARKETS
"If the Halal industry flourishes, Taiwan might consider making inroads into other Muslim markets around the world with Taiwanese Halal products," a COA official said.
The idea of producing Halal beef locally came after the COA heard complaints from Muslims living in Taiwan as well as buyers from other Asian countries that they had seen very few Taiwanese food products carrying Halal certification.
Halal certification is recognition that the products are permissible under Islamic law and can be used or consumed by Muslims.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS