February 16, 2012

Chinese cities tighten checks on meat origins

Country of origin labels of beef and pork will be dispensed to meat suppliers and markets in Tainan and checks on whether meat products are properly labelled will be intensified, Tainan's mayor said Wednesday (Feb 15).

Caterers and meat processors will also be required to produce certificates stating the sources of their products and will be barred from ordering meat products containing ractopamine, a leanness-enhancing feed additive that is banned in Taiwan, Mayor Lai Ching-te said.

Beef sold in the city's markets comes mostly from Australia, while the few suppliers offering beef from the United States have been ordered to pull their products from store shelves, said Chao Chiu-mei, the city's consumer rights protection official.

In Taichung, meanwhile, consumer rights protection officials also inspected hypermarkets and supermarkets to ensure that they were not selling ractopamine-tainted beef from the US.

Ten hypermarkets in the city's Fongyuan District inspected Tuesday were told to pull all their ractopamine-tainted US beef from their shelves, said Chen Po-ching, the city's consumer rights protection official.

Another hypermarket chain said its store in Fongyuan had begun ordering beef from Australia instead, adding that all of its 63 stores in Taiwan have pulled US ribs from their shelves and will destroy all stocks in the near future.

The ractopamine dispute recently came to the fore amid concerns that Taiwan might lift its ban on US beef imports containing the feed additive, which critics say could endanger public health and the livelihoods of local livestock producers.

Ractopamine is allowed in just 20-plus countries around the world, including the US and Canada. It is banned in Taiwan, China, the European Union and more than 100 other countries.