The legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee yesterday voted to reject a motion proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers that would have required manufacturers to label pork products with ractopamine content.
The motion, which was proposed by KMT legislators Lin Wei-chou (林為洲), Hsu Chih-jung (徐志榮), Wen Yu-hsia (溫玉霞) and Chang Yu-mei (張育美), was put to a vote after the Ministry of Health and Welfare disagreed with the proposal, even after the KMT lawmakers suggested voluntary labeling rather than mandatory.
The proposal failed, with the committee’s six Democratic Progressive (DPP) lawmakers voting no and the four KMT lawmakers voting yes.
Photo: Taipei Times
The motion was proposed after two manufacturers in Taoyuan this month were found to have labeled pork imported from the US as being from Canada.
“The American institute in Taiwan [AIT] said in a statement that the US is confident about the quality of its pork, which meets Taiwan’s import standards,” the motion said.
“The AIT statement said that the US agrees that food should be accurately labeled. However, the government regulations do not mandate food manufacturers to label the use of US pork containing ractopamine. This not only affects basic rights of consumers, but it could lead to a comprehensive boycott of US pork,” it said.
“To protect food safety, we ask to make labeling the use of US pork containing ractopamine a mandate for food manufacturers,” it said.
Lin said that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and the DPP had promised that people would have the right to choose between pork with or without traces of ractopamine.
The right to choose can only be ensured through clear food labeling, he said.
The US would benefit if there was a mandate on the labeling of US pork containing ractopamine, Wen said.
Consumers would not have such fear when they see US pork on the shelves, she said.
Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) said that the US government agrees that production sites should be accurately labeled on food.
“We do not have any plan to mandate labeling the use of ractopamine in pork, because residue of ractopamine has yet to be found in the US pork imported to the country,” he said.
“Thirty percent of the US beef imported to the county contains ractopamine, which is within safety limits, but we do not have a mandate for disclosure in that case either,” Hsueh said. “US beef was allowed into Taiwan during the administration of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), which did not require beef product manufacturers to disclose such information.”
The US government does not require food manufacturers to disclose whether the pork they use contains ractopamine, Hsueh said, adding that such disclosure should be at the discrestion of manufacturers.
“Food manufacturers can voluntarily label the use of ractopamine in pork without a government mandate,” he said. “However, as no imported US pork has been found to have residue of ractopamine, manufacturers would have to spend extra money on testing to make that determination.”
DPP Legislator Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) said that the motion contradicted the KMT’s position two years ago, when the government eased restrictions on imports of US pork.
“The KMT opposed the import of US pork for fear that it could affect the pork industry in Taiwan, but it now worries that people would not consume US pork because of a lack of labeling,” Hung said. “US manufacturers would care if there was injustice in the system, but so far none has expressed such grievances.”
The DPP supports heavy penalties for manufacturers that deliberately mislabel where their products are from, but that has nothing to do with ractopamine in pork, he said.
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