Random inspections of the more than 30,000 tonnes of tea that Taiwan imports annually showed that between 3.5 and 3.9 percent contain pesticide residues exceeding legally permissible levels, with tea from India having the highest failure rates, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
The FDA said that a total of 21,379 consignments of tea, or about 98,523 tonnes, were imported between 2013 and the first quarter of this year, with the agency conducting inspections for pesticide residues on 5,771 consignments, or 27 percent.
FDA Northern Center for Regional Administration official Wang Te-yuan (王德原) said that 217 batches failed the inspections — a failure rate of 3.76 percent.
The majority of tea Taiwan imports come from Vietnam, Sri Lanka and China, the FDA said, adding that Vietnam exports mostly green or black tea to the nation, while Sri Lanka mostly exports black tea and China pu-er tea.
Black tea accounted for about 45.4 percent of all tea imported during the period, followed by green tea (32.5 percent), partially fermented tea (12.5 percent) and pu-er tea (9.6 percent), the FDA said.
“The three countries that had the highest failure rates were India, Japan and Vietnam, with failure rates of 8.1 percent, 7.7 percent and 4.6 percent respectively,” FDA Northern Center for Regional Administration official Hsiao Hui-wen (蕭惠文) said, adding that the items that failed inspections were returned or destroyed.
Hsiao said one possible reason why Japanese tea had relatively high failure rates was because all food imports from Japan are subjected to batch-by-batch inspections since the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster in 2011, and because Japanese regulations on the use of thiacloprid — an insecticide often used on tea leaves — are looser than those of Taiwan.
Wang said that to enhance food safety management, starting from July 31 last year, tea importers are required to examine their tea products for pesticide residues at least once each season or per batch.
Wang added that starting July 31, food companies will also be required to introduce food traceability systems.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS