THROUGH THE BACK DOOR:Only 6.5 percent of imported US beef products were inspected last year, with more than 21 percent of the items inspected being rejected
By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said yesterday that the government’s preventive measures against US beef imports containing the animal feed additive ractopamine had failed after health officials said no importer had been fined during the past two years.
Citing high rates of US beef products failing inspections at customs and in the marketplace, DPP legislators told a press conference that the “three management and five checkpoint (三管五卡)” measures had been a failure and that they would not be able to guarantee public health if the ban on ractopamine is lifted.
The pledge to conduct regular inspections at meat-processing factories, the border and in markets was initiated by then-premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) in November 2009 amid a dispute over the partial lifting of a ban on US beef imports.
Only 6.5 percent of imported US beef products were inspected by customs last year, with more than 21 percent of the items inspected being rejected because they contained ractopamine, DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said yesterday, adding that Department of Health officials had only inspected three US meat processors — 40 percent of the total number of US exporters.
The low inspection rate, the high failure rate and the recent discoveries of additives in US beef products sold in retail stores, markets and steakhouses suggest that the administration is incapable of handling the monitoring, she said.
Local importers who imported products containing the drug are subject to a fine of between NT$60,000 and NT$6 million (US$2,037 and US$203,700), but no importer has been fined since the measures were adopted in 2009, said Tsai Shu-chen (蔡淑貞), director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Division of Food Safety.
The Department of Health is unable to inspect every shipment of imported US beef products at customs as the DPP has demanded because of a lack of personnel and resources, Tsai added.
The DPP continued to question the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration’s pledge of “no predetermined position and no timetable” on the dispute, saying that all the signs point to the lifting of the ban following the current legislative session.
Premier Sean Chen and the Council of Agriculture had both cited incorrect data in their reports, with Chen saying that only 29 countries have banned the drug, when there are more than 160 countries that disallow it, DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said, adding that Chen and the council both suggested they were leaning toward lifting the ban.
DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said the Department of Health’s position “was pretty clear” in a directive which demands that health officials nationwide carry out “low-key” inspections of US beef products.