Health official criticizes Taichung's release of pork test results

Taipei, Feb. 6 (CNA) Deputy Minister of Health Victor Wang (王必勝) said Tuesday the Taichung City government should have "exercised caution" before publicly announcing that a Taiwan Sugar Corp. (Taisugar) pork product had tested positive for traces of the banned additive cimbuterol.

Wang was responding to the city government's Feb. 5 announcement that out of total of 22 tests on three different samples of frozen sliced Boston butt supplied by Taisugar, 21 tested positive for cimbuterol.

The issue first came to light on Feb. 2 when the Taichung City government publicized positive tests for cimbuterol on a Taisugar pork product, triggering food safety concerns on pork supplied by the state-run company, the largest hog breeder in Taiwan.

However, since then up to 60 samples from the same batch of products as the contaminated pork in Taichung as well as different samples from the same slaughterhouse and livestock farm were tested by the central government, local governments and private testing units, with none returning a positive result.

In light of this, the Ministry of Health has reminded the Taichung City government to exercise caution rather than announcing results hastily, Wang said in a post on social media.

Wang noted that the 0.002ppm detected by the Taichung City government's lab was very close to the detection limit for cimbuterol.

He also cited the city government's report of finding quantities between 0.001ppm and 0.018ppm, saying that it indicated the laboratory environment may be unstable.

In response, Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) emphasized that the city values the people's safety above all else, and wanted to warn them before they ate potentially harmful food.

The original samples of pork in which the Taichung City government-commissioned laboratory had found traces of the substance have been divided into two parts. One part was sent to the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) on Monday, and the second part will undergo a reexamination led by the city government.

The local government will have the TFDA, Taisugar and an impartial party reexamine the sample. The impartial party is currently being confirmed, according to the Taichung City government.

TFDA Deputy Director-General Wang Te-yuan (王德原) told the press on Tuesday that the agency will try its best to come up with results before the Lunar New Year's Day on Saturday so that people can rest easy during the Feb. 8-14 LNY holiday.

Taisugar is the largest pig farmer in Taiwan. It has been keeping and breeding pigs for pork since 1953 and produces around 270,000 pigs annually.

Related News

Feb .7: Cimbuterol found in contaminated pork retest: TFDA

Feb. 5: Conflicting pork additive results lead to request for further probe

Feb. 4: No cimbuterol found in samples from contaminated pork batch: MOA

Feb. 4: Cities and counties preemptively remove Taisugar pork

Feb. 3: Taisugar recalls all Boston butt pork products from store shelves

Feb. 2: Taisugar pork ordered off shelves after leanness-enhancing additive found