A government program to import eggs from nine nations, introduced earlier this year in an effort to address a domestic supply shortage, has identified substandard supply from Turkey totaling 127.62 tonnes, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
In its weekly release on substandard food products intercepted at the border, the FDA said it seized the eggs in five batches from Wednesday last week to yesterday after finding them to contain cancer-causing nitrofurans, which are banned in Taiwan.
The problematic eggs have been destroyed or returned to Turkey, the FDA said.
Photo: Wu Liang-yi, Taipei Times
Taiwan has had a shortage of eggs since the Lunar New Year, which the Council of Agriculture has blamed on several factors, including unpredictable weather, increased feed costs, a high number of molting hens and large-scale culling due to avian influenza outbreaks.
To make up for the shortfall, the government has sought to ramp up egg imports from nations such as Turkey, the US and Australia, while also importing more breeder chickens to help local farms increase production.
The substandard eggs are among a total of 397 shipments imported from the nine nations as of Sunday, FDA Deputy Director Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said.
However, as the eggs were imported under the government program, the FDA would not impose penalties on the importer, the National Animal Industry Foundation, Lin said.
Domestic daily demand is about 24 million eggs, the council said in late March, and it has reduced monthly imports from about 30 million to 10 million this month as domestic supply has increased to 22.8 million eggs per day.
In the event there is a surplus of imported eggs, they are to be preserved in liquid form and used as a backup, the council said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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