More than 300 food products thought to have been imported under false pretenses have cleared radiation testing, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported yesterday, as more potentially problematic products await testing.
The products were on a growing list of items thought to have been illegally imported from five Japanese prefectures near the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
The number of Japanese food products subjected to testing for radioactive content exceeds the list of food items believed to have been imported to Taiwan with false origin labeling, FDA senior specialist Wang Te-yuan (王德原) yesterday morning told a news conference in Taipei.
As of 10am yesterday, 286 food products imported by 13 Taiwanese companies were thought to have been manufactured in Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma or Chiba prefectures. All foods from the region have been barred from import since the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster in March 2011.
Six products were removed from the list yesterday after they were confirmed to have been produced outside of the five prefectures — or were repeats of items already included on the list, Wang said.
A total of 333 food products have passed the radioactive testing conducted by the Atomic Energy Council, up from 193 on Wednesday, Wang said, adding that all potentially contaminated products are legally required to be pulled off store shelves before today as a precautionary measure.
Under the current law, individuals or companies who import food items produced in the five Japanese prefectures or who file fraudulent customs declaration papers could face a fine ranging from NT$30,000 to NT$3 million (US$955 to US$95,526).
The radiation scare originated from the administration’s discovery earlier last month of two soy sauce products imported by a trading firm based in Taipei.
The items’ Chinese-language origin labels indicated that they were produced in Tokyo, but the Japanese labels attached underneath suggested they were actually manufactured in Chiba and Gunma, prompting a wider investigation of imported Japanese foods.
Turning to some implicated companies’ denial of responsibility for the fabricated origin labels, Wang said they would be spared from an inevitable fate of a permanent recall and destruction of their products — which are only subjected to a preventive recall at the moment — if they manage to obtain a place of origin certificate from the Japanese government.
A total of 104.4 tonnes of allegedly illegally imported foodstuffs have been sealed and confiscated thus far, pending further investigation.
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