The government yesterday gave a preview of an official notice on the allowable levels of ractopamine in beef imports and requirements for product origin labeling, as it prepares to open the local market to imported beef containing the livestock feed additive next month.
The preview is aimed at allowing members of the public to express their opinions about the measures, Food and Drug Administration Director-General Kang Jaw-jou (康照洲) told a press conference.
The new regulations are expected to take effect by the middle of next month, Kang said.
The Department of Health has capped the maximum residue limit for ractopamine in beef at 10 parts per billion (ppb), he said, adding that within the next 14 days, members of the public could submit their opinions, which the department would “take into consideration.”
He did not rule out a re-evaluation of the standards for ractopamine residues, but added that “the chances are slim.”
The government made a thorough evaluation and solicited professional opinions on the issue before announcing the lifting of the ban on the leanness-enhancing additive used in some countries, he said.
Countries such as Japan and South Korea have also set 10ppb residue standards for their beef imports, Kang said.
The public can also express their views on regulations related to the labeling of the origin of beef imports within the following week, he added.
Under the new regulations, places serving beef — including restaurants and food stands — must clearly label the origin of the beef they are using, the department said.
Packaged foods such as instant noodles and beef jerky should also be labeled showing point of origin, it added.
The department will step up inspections of beef products on the market and in restaurants serving beef in the months after the release of the official notice.
“We aim to check 30,000 restaurants,” he said.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
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
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