Two shipments of dried chili products imported from China totaling 19,930kg were recently intercepted at the border after they were found to contain excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Tuesday.
A shipment of 3,980kg of dried chili slices and a shipment of 15,950kg of dried chili flakes were found to contain chlormequat — a pesticide used as a plant growth regulator — at concentrations of 0.17 and 0.07 parts per million respectively, exceeding the non-detectable limit, FDA Deputy Director-General Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said.
The products, which were accepted for inspection on April 23, were either destroyed or returned to their country of origin, Lin said.
Photo courtesy of the Food and Drug Administration
They were imported from the Chinese company Tianjin Yongsheng Agricultural Product First Making Co by Sin Chon Food Co in Yunlin County, information provided by the FDA showed.
From Nov. 6 last year to Monday last week, 120 shipments of chili powder-related products imported from China were inspected at the border.
Twenty-four of the shipments failed food safety tests, mainly due to the presence of Sudan dyes and the pesticides chlormequat and clothianidin, Lin said.
Chili-related products, regardless of their country of origin, are subject to shipment-by-shipment border inspections until March 5 next year, he said.
The measure was implemented following incidents in February and March in which products containing Chinese chili powder contaminated with Sudan red dyes.
In addition to the latest shipments of contaminated dried chili products, 16 other food and drink shipments were intercepted at the border, the FDA said.
They included five shipments of Spanish alcohol-free wine with the brand name “Bodega Win,” which tested positive for sulfur dioxide, a bleaching agent prohibited from being used in drinks, and two shipments of fresh broccoli from Vietnam that were found to contain excessive amounts of the pesticide flonicamid.
A shipment of durian ice cream imported from Singapore was also seized due to a high bacterial count, the FDA said.
The ice cream was found to have a concentration of 21,000 colony-forming units per gram (cfu/g) of Enterobacteriaceae — a family of bacteria, some of which can cause illness — exceeding the limit of 10cfu/g, it said.
The 1,296kg shipment was believed to have been contaminated because of substandard hygiene standards during the manufacturing process, Lin said.
People with relatively weak gastrointestinal systems might experience symptoms after consuming the ice cream, he said.
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