Since the start of the week, fresh strawberries imported from Japan have been subject to batch-by-batch border inspections. The reason for this is to be found in the excessive levels of pesticide residues, found in 15 imported batches of the fruit over the past three months.
Yesterday, the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a list of eight items that failed its latest border inspections after they were found to contain excessive amounts of pesticide residue or banned preservatives and bleaches.
According to information, the products include cherries imported from Chile, fresh strawberries from Japan, sparkling dark grape juice from Australia, and strawberry biscuit sticks from Thailand. Higher than permitted levels of pesticide residue have been recently found in fresh strawberries imported from Japan, FDA Northern Center head Chen Ching-yu said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said that its latest pesticide residue testing on fresh fruit and vegetables resulted in a failure rate of 23.1 percent, with the failed items including strawberries and kumquats imported from Japan.
The department said the 52 tested items -43 domestic and nine imported- tested last month were randomly sourced from markets, retailers, restaurants and beverage stores.
The results showed that 12 items failed the pesticide residue testing, including seven domestic items (a failure rate of 16.3 percent) and five imported items (a failure rate of 55.6 percent).
