Imported apple juice seized at Taiwan's border

Taipei, Jan. 2 (CNA) A shipment of apple juice from Turkey was recently seized at Taiwan's border after being found to contain excessive levels of mycotoxins, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Tuesday.

Sample testing carried out on Nov. 30 found that the apple juice supplied by Tunay Gida San. Ve Tic. A.S. contained 62 micrograms (µg) per kg of patulin, exceeding the legal amount of 50 µg/kg, according to the FDA.

It added that the batch, totaling 4 kg, will either be returned to its country of origin or destroyed.

Patulin comes from molds and can be found in overripe apples, FDA Deputy Director Lin Chin-fu told reporters in a phone interview Tuesday.

The impact of patulin on animals includes fetal malformation and cancer, while its effect on humans is unclear as it is classified as a group 3 agent by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, meaning its carcinogenicity to humans is unknown.

According to Yen Tzung-hai (顏宗海), an attending physician at the Department of Nephrology at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou, large consumption of palutin in a short time period will cause nausea and vomiting.

Patulin can be found in fruit including apples, cherries, blueberries, strawberries and bananas, with contamination most commonly seen in apples, he added.

He also warned people to not drink apple juice if they see a change in color, the juice smells off, the expiry date has passed, or the packaging is damaged.

In addition to Turkish apple juice, another 20 goods made the list of imported items that recently failed safety inspections, issued by the FDA on Tuesday. These included Indonesian coconut sugar and fresh pineapples from the Philippines, and strawberries from Japan and South Korea.

According to Lin, both the Japanese and South Korean strawberries were found to contain excessive amounts of pesticides.

Since November 2023, 21 of 1,145 batches of strawberries imported from Japan have failed border inspections, Lin said.

Due to Taiwan and Japan having different regulations on pesticides such as flonicamid and acequinocyl, Japanese strawberries often fail inspections, Lin said, adding that all strawberries imported from Japan were subjected to batch-by-batch inspections from June 1, 2023 to April 30 this year.

Meanwhile according to Lin, this is the first time in two years South Korean strawberries failed border inspections, but he also mentioned that the number of imports has been relatively small.