July 27, 2012

Taiwan's pig farmers fear ban lift of ractopamine residues

Taiwan's domestic pig farmers are worried that the country would remove its ban on residues of livestock leanness enhancing drugs such as ractopamine in pork imports as it did on beef earlier in the day, the farmers said Wednesday (July 25).

In passing the controversial amendments to the Act Governing Food Sanitation, the Legislature did not specify a continued ban on ractopamine in pork, said Pan Lien-chou, an executive of the Republic of China Swine Association.

Pan said he was worried that this means a possible opening to imports of pork containing residues of the drug. The passage of the amendments opens the way for Taiwan to import US beef containing the livestock leanness-enhancing drug ractopamine.

The revised act authorises the relevant authorities to set a maximum allowable level of leanness-enhancing drug residues based on assessments of local dietary habits.

Ractopamine is one of many beta-agonists that are used in human and veterinary medicine as bronchodilatory agents and is an approved feed additive in the US.

The newly revised act includes a non-binding resolution that said because of local dietary habits, a maximum residue level of ractopamine cannot be adopted for pork, or pig and cattle organs.

Lin Chiu-kuei, chairman of the Chiayi County Swine Association, said it is regrettable that the government's promise to treat pork as a separate issue was not written into law but merely mentioned in a resolution.

"The government does not care about pig farmers," he said.

Nonetheless, Lin said, he hopes the government will keep its promise to impose strict screening of meat imports and to mandate labelling that lists the source of the product and any additives it might contain, he said.

In response, Kang Jaw-jou, head of the health department's Food and Drug Administration, said that as long as the government maintains it zero-tolerance policy on ractopamine residues in pork, traces of the drug will not be permitted.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Chen Bao-ji said that based on the newly revised act, he will approve the use of ractopamine as a feed additive for cattle in Taiwan. However, the drug is still banned in the rearing of other livestock in the country, he stressed.

"This measure enforces the policy of treating beef and pork differently," he said.