Expert meeting to be held in tainted Taisugar pork case: FDA

Taipei, Feb. 16 (CNA) Experts will meet on Feb. 21 to discuss how the banned leanness-enhancing additive cimbuterol came to be found in a pork product made by state-owned Taiwan Sugar Co. (Taisugar), Taiwan's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Friday.

FDA Deputy Director-General Lin Chin-fu (林金富) told reporters Friday evening that the meeting will be held at 2 p.m., including experts in food safety, veterinary science and livestock management in attendance.

The incident came to light after the Taichung Health Bureau said on Feb. 2 that a sample of Taisugar's "Pork Boston Butt, Sliced" product at a General Welfare Service store in Taichung was found to contain 0.002 parts per million (ppm) of cimbuterol in a test conducted on Jan. 15.

The government and local health authorities across Taiwan have since conducted additional tests on pork products and as of Feb. 10, no trace of cimbuterol was found in 705 pork products tested.

The latest results announced by the FDA on Friday showed that an additional 75 samples of Taisugar pork products examined by local health authorities showed no sign of the substance.

The 75 samples included three that were processed in the same batch as the tainted sample, according to the FDA.

However, cimbuterol was again detected -- at 0.001 ppm -- in the pack of pork found to contain the banned additive after a retest was conducted, FDA Director-General Wu Show-mei (吳秀梅) said on Feb. 7.

In response to the results of additional testing, Health Minister Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) said on Feb. 7 that the tainted Taisugar pork was likely an isolated case.

According to Lin, Taisugar personnel, as well as staff from the Taichung Health Bureau, Ministry of Agriculture, and the Office of Food Safety under the Executive Yuan, will also attend the expert meeting.

In the wake of the incident, the government have decided to step up sampling inspections of pork products on the market in 2024, doubling the number of scheduled annual tests from 2,000 to 4,000, he added.

Update

Feb. 21: Expert meeting results in Taisugar pork case expected in March: TFDA