American basil pesto imported by Costco seized at Taiwan border

Taipei, March 12 (CNA) A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco from the United States in mid-February was recently intercepted at Taiwan's border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residues, Taiwan's Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) said Tuesday.

Tests found that samples from a shipment of "Kirkland Signature" brand basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan, Inc. contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit.

Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide.

According to the TFDA, out of the 1080 bottles of basil pesto in the shipment, six bottles were sampled, followed by a random inspection of those six bottles.

TFDA Deputy Director-General Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said the 674-kilogram shipment of basil pesto would be either destroyed or returned to its country of origin, like all imported food items that fail the border tests.

The agency will also initiate shipment-by-shipment inspections of the basil pesto imported by Costco from the same place of origin with the same serial number, Lin said.

From Sep. 4, 2023 to March 4, 2024, 425 shipments of seasoning sauces from the United States, weighing a combined 1,609.53 metric tons, were inspected by the TFDA at the border, and seven tested positive for ethylene oxide, according to the TFDA.

Meanwhile, two shipments of fresh strawberries, both imported by New Taipei-based Fruit Paradise Trading Co., Ltd. from Japan, were held back after being found with excessive amounts of pesticides.

Tests of samples found the strawberries had traces of mepanipyrim, bifenazate, flonicamid, and fludioxonil in concentrations of 1.1 parts per million (ppm), 2.7 ppm, 0.02 ppm, and 2.1 ppm, respectively.

Lin said the two shipments of fresh strawberries were from the same company in Nagasaki, and imports of fresh strawberries from that company to Taiwan will be suspended for one month.

Over the past six months, 676 shipments of Japanese fresh strawberries were tested by the TFDA at the border, with 30 failing the inspections, the majority of which were due to excessive pesticide residues, Lin said.

All fresh strawberry imports from Japan have been subject to shipment-by-shipment inspections since June 1, 2023 and that will continue until at least April 30, 2024, Lin said.

Apart from the Japanese strawberries and the American basil pesto, 11 other shipments of food items that arrived in Taiwan from Jan. 16 to Feb. 23 also failed border inspections, according to data from the TFDA, which provides a weekly list of such items.

They included shipments of mung beans from Myanmar, curry powder from Japan, fresh nectarines from Australia, and juice concentrate from Malaysia.

The mung beans, curry powder, and fresh nectarines were found to have excessive pesticide residues, while the Malaysian product was found to contain an excessive amount of sulfur dioxide, a chemical that can be used as a bleaching agent, the TFDA data showed.