Tainted Taisugar pork controversy isolated case: Government official

Taipei, March 8 (CNA) The discovery of the banned additive cimbuterol in a Taiwan Sugar Corp. (Taisugar) pork product in February was an isolated case, Sheu Fuu (許輔), head of the Cabinet's Office of Food Safety, said Friday, confirming a previous conclusion on the issue.

The controversy surfaced when the Taichung Health Bureau reported on Feb. 2 that a sample of the state-owned Taisugar's "Pork Boston Butt, Sliced" product obtained from a store in Taichung tested positive for cimbuterol during a test conducted on Jan. 15.

Taisugar then announced the recall of all its sliced Boston butt pork products on Feb. 3, but tests later indicated that other samples of the same product were free of the additive, leading to a preliminary finding that the Taichung case was an isolated one.

The original sample, however, was still found to contain cimbuterol when retested by the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA).

The central government decided to convene two expert meetings to determine what happened, but while the experts agreed with the preliminary conclusions, they could not pinpoint the source of the contamination.

According to Sheu, the experts concluded that the sample was not tainted during the livestock farming, slaughtering, or marketing processes, but they could not dismiss the possibility of it being tainted during the testing process.

They were also unable to confirm that the sample did get tainted during testing, Sheu said.

As of Feb. 22, the TFDA and the Ministry of Agriculture had tested 921 Taisugar pork products, including 36 products of the same production batch as the tainted sample, and none of those were found to contain cimbuterol.

The Office of Food Safety report that summarized the findings added that no traces of cimbuterol were found in the hair and blood of the pigs and pig feed at Taisugar's Nanjing Livestock Farm, where the tainted pork product was produced.

In addition, 793 of the 921 samples tested came directly from Taisugar livestock farms, before the meat was prepared for sale, and none tested positive for cimbuterol.

The report also said there was no risk of cross-contamination at the factories of Sings Kout Trading Co., one of the slaughterhouses where Taisugar's pork products are processed.

Though the experts and report did not offer any new findings on the source of cimbuterol, Sheu indicated that the practices of the Taichung lab were flawed.

According to Sheu, the tainted sample was frozen and then defrosted three times, and the humidity control box used to store the sample was not locked, indicating that there were problems with storage procedures.

In addition, red liquid was seen in the original packaging of the meat before it was first tested, a sign that the packaging had already been damaged before any tests were conducted, Sheu said.

He did not explain, however, whether that observation could have been related to the positive test for cimbuterol.

Also curious, Sheu said, was that the tainted sample was tested 22 times, and there was a 10-fold difference in maximum and minimum quantitative values for cimbuterol, which was beyond the normal margin of error.

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

Feb. 6: Health official criticizes Taichung's release of pork test results

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

The case has been marred by politics, given that the central government is run by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Taichung is run by a Kuomintang mayor.

DPP government officials have previously bashed the Taichung lab for releasing the results, and the Taichung Health Bureau saw the expert meeting results released Friday as more politically than scientifically oriented.

The questions raised by the central government were not in any way related to the detection of cimbuterol in pork products, but rather conclusions made to minimize social costs, said Taichung Health Bureau Director Tseng Tzu-chan (曾梓展).

Asked whether Taisugar's Boston butt pork products could hit store shelves again, Sheu said the company could apply to sell their products again to health authorities in Taichung and Tainan, as the sample found to contain cimbuterol was discovered in Taichung and produced in Tainan.