A batch of chanterelle mushrooms from Lithuania was found to contain traces of radioactive residue exceeding the legal limit and was rejected at the border, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
The batch of mushrooms was found to contain 140.1 becquerels per kilogram of cesium-137, but the legal limit is 100 becquerels per kilogram, the FDA said.
The presence of cesium-137 was due to artificial contamination, indicating pollution in the area in which the mushrooms were cultivated, FDA Deputy Director-General Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said in a telephone interview.
Photo Courtesy of the Food and Drug Administration
Although this was the first time chanterelle mushrooms from Lithuania have not complied with import regulations, the FDA would use the strictest methods when monitoring and inspecting imports of chanterelle mushrooms from the country, the agency said.
The same would also apply to chanterelle mushrooms from France, which twice last year failed to comply with the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), the agency added.
Meanwhile, two batches of seasoning and condiments imported from the US, including a sirloin seasoning and Classico Italian Sausage sauce, were rejected for containing ethylene oxide, a carcinogenic substance that is banned in Taiwan, the FDA said.
Overall, 10 batches of seasoning and condiments from the US have failed to comply with Taiwanese import laws over the past six months, it said.
The FDA said that on Tuesday last week it asked US authorities to explain the failures and propose ways to improve by Sept. 5.
Such imports from the US are now subject to more through inspections, the FDA said.
Eleven other items were seized at the border, including oranges from Japan, Acerola cherry extract from China, and Danji cucumber slices from South Korea, as they failed to meet standards for reasons including excessive pesticide residue or the presence of additives, it added.
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
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