Questions over the quality of imported eggs have boosted the demand for domestically produced eggs and caused an increase in the retail egg price, the Taipei Egg Retailers’ Association said yesterday.
“People now have serious doubts over the quality of imported eggs due to food safety issues that arose recently,” association chairman Lin Tien-lai (林天來) said.
Controversy has surronded a special egg import program introduced by the Ministry of Agriculture to address a nationwide egg shortage earlier this year. The furor included the discovery that eggs imported from Brazil had an incorrect expiration date, and egg shipments from Brazil were found to contain florfenicol and chloramphenicol residues.
Photo: Taipei Times
“As many primary and secondary schools have stopped using liquid eggs in school lunches, the nation’s demand for shell eggs has increased by about 400,000 per day,” Lin Tien-Lai said.
Today, the retail egg price for consumers is to rise to NT$55 per 600g from NT$53, while the retail price at last production sites is scheduled to rise on Thursday to NT$45.5 per 600g from NT$43.5, the association said.
The egg shortage is likely to worsen and continue for the rest of the year due to a decreased consumption of imported eggs and inadequate domestic egg production, Lin said, adding that retail prices might increase further.
Separately, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it completed inspections at 59 liquid-egg processing factories launched on Thursday. Two factories failed the inspection for environmental hygiene and two items were found with labeling errors.
The inspection was initiated as a handful of factories were reported last week to have mislabeled imported liquid egg products as “made in Taiwan.”
According to the Regulations Governing the Determination of Country of Origin of Imported Goods (進口貨物原產地認定標準), eggs do not need “substantive transformation” to become liquid eggs, therefore the “country of origin” must list where the eggs were imported from, the FDA said.
A total of 59 liquid-egg processing factories were inspected from Thursday to Saturday, and the manufacturing process and environmental hygiene of 56 factories meet the standards of the Regulations on Good Hygiene Practice for Food (食品良好衛生規範準則), while two failed and one was found only selling shell eggs, but not liquid eggs, it said.
FDA Deputy Director Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said the two factories failed due to poor environmental hygiene, including dirty floor and wall corners, and door curtains that were unable to seal tight, so they are required to improve the issues within a given time, or they could face a fine between NT$60,000 and NT$200 million (US$1,868 and US$6.2 million).
The FDA also conducted random inspection on the labeling of 97 liquid egg products, and 95 items among them passed the inspection, while two items failed to label the contents as “unsterilized” as required, so the factories were asked to fix the problem.
Following a special project for enhanced inspections on shell eggs sold at retailers — including supermarkets, traditional markets and stores — across the nation, conducted by the FDA and local health departments, Lin Chin-fu said all 2,921 items inspected from Sept. 14 to Saturday last week passed the inspection.
Eighty randomly selected egg items were also sent to laboratories to be tested for veterinary drug residues, and 49 items have passed the examination so far, while the others are still being tested, the FDA said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS