In its latest weekly report on substandard food imports, the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration said nine shipments of fresh strawberries from Japan had failed to pass pesticide checks at Taiwan Customs over the past week. This has been a problem since last November, the FDA said. Since then, 35 shipments of strawberries from Japan had to be returned or destroyed.
Since February, the FDA said, it has been trying to address the problem by checking every shipment of strawberries from Japan, and it will continue to do so for the next four months. The FDA, however, has also requested that Japan provide a written explanation of the high levels on pesticides being found on its strawberry shipments to Taiwan. The request was submitted last week, asking for a response by May 6, which should also include Japan's plans for addressing the problem.
