March 20, 2012

Philippine beef import declarations slump

The amount of Philippine beef import declarations fell since the government revealed a series of measures to ensure food safety amid public concerns about the use of leanness enhancers, an official of the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday (Mar 19).

Kang Jaw-jou, director-general of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said Monday that in the past few days, declarations of imported beef dropped by between 20% and 30%.

"Although we don't know the exact reason, the drop in import declarations is a fact," Kang said.

The central and local health authorities embarked on a first round of checks on imported beef March 5 in the wake of controversy over ractopamine residue found in imported US beef.

A second round of checks on the leanness enhancer was set to start Tuesday and the authorities estimate that the inspection expenditures will be increased by TWD10 million (US$338,745) per month.

The latest round of checks will target importers of 50 meat items that have been found to violate Taiwan's zero-tolerance policy on residue of leanness enhancers.

The items, including beef from the US, Canada, Panama and Nicaragua, and beef tendon from the US, Panama and Australia, will be subjected to 100% shipment-by-shipment examination.

All other countries and products will remain subject to the regular 5% examination of shipments.

In addition, health authorities around the country will begin spot checks on 1,000 beef, pork, duck and goose samples from Tuesday.

The products to be tested will include 500 beef samples, 400 pork samples, and 100 duck and goose samples, as part of Taiwan's efforts to deal with it latest food crisis.