One shipment of instant noodles from Vietnam and another from Japan were recently seized at Taiwan's border, after being found to contain residue of a banned pesticide, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in a statement Tuesday.
A shipment of Acecook Hao Hao sour shrimp flavor instant noodles imported by Taiwan's Qian Yu Food Enterprise Co. from Vietnam, totaling 1,458 kilograms, was confiscated after 0.382 mg/kg of ethylene oxide was detected in the product's vegetable seasoning sachets, the FDA said.
In addition, a 37.92-km shipment of Sunaoshi cup instant ramen noodles from Japan, imported by Taiwan's Excel Right Trading Co., was also confiscated and destroyed after 0.209 mg/kg of ethylene oxide was detected, according to the FDA.
Ethylene oxide, a widely used industrial product, is banned in foods in Taiwan as it is classified as a first-class carcinogen. Long-term exposure can increase the risk of cancer and cause central nervous or peripheral neuropathy, according to the FDA.
The two shipments were among a total of 13 imported food and food container items that failed to pass recent safety tests at the border, according to the FDA's weekly report on substandard food imports released Tuesday.
The items will either be returned to the country of origin or destroyed, according to the FDA.
Over the past six months, six shipments of instant noodles with meat imported from Vietnam failed customs inspection, according to FDA data.
Since Aug. 29, the FDA has stepped up inspections of imported instant noodles with meat from Vietnam and have conducted batch-by-batch checks of such imports brought in by Qian Yu because its imports have failed inspections three times in six months, said Chen Ching-yu (???), head of the FDA's Northern Center for Regional Administration.
In addition, with five shipments of instant noodles imported from Japan having failed inspection over the past six months, the FDA has, starting Aug. 8, increased the percentage of such imports checked from 2-10 percent to around 20-50 percent, according to Chen.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel