Experts attending an ad hoc meeting on Tuesday to address the health risks of ractopamine said Taiwanese eat more internal organs compared with US and European meat consumers, so an evaluation of the local population is necessary before the government can consider lifting the ban on ractopamine residues in meat.
Lucy Sun Hwang (孫璐西), a professor at National Taiwan University’s Institute of Food Science and Technology, said that many of the experts in the forum acknowledged the need to review the drug’s effects based on the eating habits of Taiwanese.
Most participants were not doubtful about the drug — they were more focused on the need for a long-term safety evaluation study, she said.
With one in five people in the world consuming meat containing ractopamine residues, some experts believe that it is convincing enough evidence of the drug residues’ minimal side effects, said Wu Ming-ling (吳明玲), a doctor at Taipei Veterans General Hospital.
Washington has been pressing Taipei to relax its ban on imported meat containing ractopamine residues, which was imposed in 2006.
Last year, after Taiwan blocked shipments of US beef containing residues of the lean-meat enhancing chemical, the US extended the suspension of talks under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) between the two sides.
Amid speculation that the government might ease its ractopamine residue ban as a result of US pressure, local cattle and pig farmers and the Consumers’ Foundation have threatened to stage a protest in Taipei later this month.
In its first term, the Ma administration was reluctant to give way on the issue, saying that ractopamine posed health risks to humans.
In related news, an animal rights activist said yesterday that the dispute between Taiwan and the US on the use of ractopamine is not only a matter of politics, diplomacy and trade, but also of animal welfare.
Amid the heated debate on whether Taiwan should allow residues of the feed additive in beef imported from the US, the health risks to the animals being fed the drug are being neglected, said Wan Chen-jhen, director of the Life Conservationist Association’s Animal Protection Education Project.
Whether ractopamine causes discomfort in animals is a subject ignored so far by the government, Wan said.
Liou Pei-pai (劉培柏), a former head of the Council of Agriculture’s Animal Health Research Institute, wrote in an opinion piece in local media on Sunday of the potential dangers of the drug on animals, including behavioral change, anxiety, heart palpitations and sudden death.
There is a need to raise public awareness of the rights enjoyed by animals reared for economic purposes, including taking their quality of life into consideration when designing agricultural policies, Wan said.
Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲), an environmentalist and a member of the Green Party Taiwan, said that if ractopamine is not an essential element in animal-rearing, then there is no reason why the government should allow it.
Politics has complicated the issue, however, Pan said.
The use of ractopamine in animal feed is currently allowed in 20-plus countries, but banned in the EU, China and Taiwan among other countries. The US first approved it for pig rearing in 1999.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
RSS