The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would suspend chili powder imports from three South Korean companies whose products were found to contain excessive pesticide residues, the agency said yesterday.
Imports of their products would be suspended for one month or longer, the FDA said.
Between Dec. 24 last year and Monday last week, 13 of 59 shipments of chili powder from South Korea did not meet import criteria because they contained excessive pesticides, resulting in a failure rate of 22.03 percent, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Food and Drug Administration
The 13 included four shipments, totaling 8,616kg of chili powder from South Korea, listed in the latest rundown of items intercepted at Taiwan’s borders issued by the FDA yesterday.
The agency has twice asked South Korean authorities to explain the frequent contraventions and corrective measures taken by Sunday, but no response had been received as of yesterday, FDA Deputy Director-General Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said.
Taiwan applies its strictest standards to inspections of chili powder imports regardless of their place of origin after shipments from China last year and earlier this year were found to contain Sudan dyes, red chemical dyes banned in Taiwan for use in foodstuffs.
Under the standards, every shipment is subject to checks for Sudan dyes and pesticide residues, a practice expected to continue until March 5 next year.
Including the chili powder from South Korea, a total of 14 items were listed by the FDA yesterday as having been rejected at the border in the past few weeks.
They include shipments of honey chipotle imported from the US, black sesame seeds from Paraguay, white radishes from China, and white pepper and coriander seeds from Indonesia, all of which contained excessive pesticide residues, the FDA said.
The other items included vegetarian instant rice noodles from Vietnam that contained a banned preservative, activated acid clay (used to refine fats and oils) from China and frozen tuna roe from South Korea containing excessive amounts of heavy metals.
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