No trace of a banned leanness-enhancing additive was detected in a repeated test on frozen pork products supplied by Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar, 台糖), the Ministry of Agriculture said last night.
The Taichung Health Bureau on Friday said that after testing of a sample collected at a store in Taichung on Jan. 15, it found 0.002 parts per million of cimbuterol, a beta-agonist that is banned in Taiwan, in Taisugar’s frozen “Pork Boston Butt, Sliced” (also at times branded as “TSC Safety Pork”).
The ministry last night said that following the Taichung report, it on Saturday collected pig blood serum, pig hair and animal feed samples from the pig farm for laboratory testing, and the results were negative for beta-agonists.
Photo courtesy of the Pingtung County Health Department
To make sure of the testing result, the ministry yesterday sent the samples from the Jan. 15 batch for another test and the result showed the Taisugar pork product did not contain any cimbuterol.
After the Taichung bureau informed the local health departments where Taisugar and its commissioned slaughterhouse and meat processing factory are located, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Saturday said it would also carry out inspections regarding the case.
The FDA yesterday said its inspection of the meat processing factory, which processed the batch of Taisugar pork products the Taichung bureau found to contain an illegal leanness-enhancing agent, found no abnormalities.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Regarding the frozen sliced pork butt product, FDA Deputy Director Lin Chin-fu (林金富) yesterday said the pigs are provided by Taisugar, while the slaughtering and slicing procedures are commissioned to Pingtung-based Sings Kout Trading Co (信功), overseen by Taisugar, and the products are returned to Taisugar for marketing.
The FDA also inspected Sings Kout’s meat processing factory on Saturday and found no abnormalities there,with the procedures were conducted according to standard operating procedures, he said.
However,normal procedures do not eliminate the possibility of cross-contamination, so an inspection at the source is needed, and it is being carried out by the ministry, Lin said.
Of the 2,730 bags of the pork product that had been sold, 165 bags had been recalled as of yesterday morning, he added.
Taisugar president Chen Li-jen (陳立人) yesterday said that not only did the ministry’s National Animal Industry Foundation immediately send inspectors on Friday evening to the pig farm to collect samples — which all tested negative for beta-agonists — the company also collected the animal feeds for different types of pigs and specimens from the animals for examination, and they also tested negative.
The company also sent other types of meat products, along with products in the same batch of frozen sliced pork butt that had tested positive for cimbuterol, for testing, and they all tested negative, he said, adding that the company would never purchase or use leanness-enhancing agents.
Taiwan Swine Association president Pan Lien-chou (潘連周) said that the nation’s pig farms have insisted on not using leanness-enhancing agents to separate their products from imported pork and maintain a competitive advantage, and as tests at the pig farm were all negative, the Taichung Health Bureau should clarify its testing methods, because its accusation has caused harm to domestic pig farmers.
If re-examination on meat from the same batch of products tests negative, the bureau should apologize to farmers and be more careful when publicizing such data in the future, he said.
Additional reporting by Yang Yuan-ting
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