Dozens of people from parents’ groups yesterday rallied in front of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, urging lawmakers to ban pork containing ractopamine residue from schools.
Chanting “we refuse pork containing ractopamine to enter school campuses,” the protesters, led by the National Alliance of Presidents of Parents’ Associations and joined by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers, called on the Ministry of Education to ensure food safety and amend the School Health Act (學校衛生法).
Although the animal feed additive is banned for use in pigs in Taiwan due to safety concerns, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Aug. 28 announced that the nation would ease restrictions on imports of US pork containing traces of the drug within certain limits starting from Jan. 1.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
On the same day, the ministry issued a notice to local education departments, ordering that all school meals use domestic pork and beef.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare on Sept. 9 proposed amendments to set maximum residue levels for ractopamine in pork products. The proposals were sent for substantive review on Sept. 25.
The parents’ association said that the Ministry of Education’s notice indicates that eating pork containing ractopamine is harmful and that the ministry is just as concerned as parents about students consuming it.
Junior-high Union of Parents’ Associations in Taipei honorary chairman Hsu Hsiao-jen (許孝仁) said that food safety reports on pork treated with ractopamine have not convinced parents that the meat is safe, and the government’s supplementary measures are not well-planned, so parents worry that not enough is being done to protect students’ health.
As the School Health Act does not apply to pre-schools, parents are urging the Ministry of Health and Welfare to also set regulations to protect those students from being exposed to pork containing the leanness-enhancing additive, the association said.
“If the law does not ban pork products treated with ractopamine from schools, who would be responsible if they are found on school campuses?” KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said.
The Ministry of Education should issue an executive order banning pork treated with the drug from schools, rather than waiting for KMT legislators to propose motions that Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers would block, he said.
KMT Legislator Alex Fai (費鴻泰) said that people concerned about the policy should protest to show the government that the majority of the public are against pork treated with ractopamine entering schools.
TPP Legislator Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如) called for source management using a product code to identify and trace imported US pork treated with the additive.
At the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee yesterday, opposing parties proposed motions to amend the School Health Act to ban pork containing ractopamine from schools.
Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) told the meeting that the ministry’s August notice was based on an amendment to Article 23 of the School Health Act, which stipulates that school meals should “give priority to using quality local agricultural products accredited by the central competent agricultural authority.”
The article also already stipulates that the ministry would establish a meal procurement contract template for schools, so it does not need to be further amended, he said.
KMT Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said that the article only dictates that schools “give priority to” local ingredients, which could lead to legal complaints from catering companies fined for using imported ingredients.
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