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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Tainted eggs found at farms
An inspector from the Changhua County Public Health Bureau inspects battery cages at the Wenjheng poultry farm yesterday after excessive amounts of the insecticide fipronil were detected in some of its eggs. Photo courtesy of the Changhua County Public Health Bureau
By Lin Chia-nan and Sean Lin / Staff reporters
Three poultry farms in Changhua County were found to have chicken eggs tainted with the insecticide fipronil, the Council of Agriculture （COA） said yesterday, adding that about 86,200 eggs had entered the market.
Fipronil-tainted eggs have been found in 17 nations and areas since the beginning of this month, most recently in Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea.
The Food and Drug Administration （FDA） on Friday last week said it had tested 10 eggs from different retailers and found that none of them contained fipronil.
However, two days later, the council found eggs at Wenjheng （文政）, Guohe （國賀） and Liancheng （連成） farms that had excessive traces of the insecticide.
“The maximum residue level for the insecticide in food is 5 parts per billion [ppb] in the EU, 20ppb in Japan and South Korea, and 30ppb in the US,” FDA Director-General Wu Shou-mei （吳秀梅） told a news conference in Taipei. “Taiwan follows the EU standard of 5ppb.”
“Fipronil can damage the human liver and thyroid if consumed in large quantities,” Wu said. “For an adult weighing 60kg to become poisoned, they would have to eat 48 eggs per day containing 5ppb of fipronil.”
“Liancheng’s sample contained 153ppb of fipronil, Guohe had 22ppb and Wenjheng’s had 5ppb,” COA Deputy Minister Chen Chi-chung （陳吉仲） said, adding that they were three of 45 samples they had tested as of Sunday.
The council was to test eggs from the nation’s 2,000 poultry farms, with the work expected to be finished today.
Fipronil is commonly used to rid agricultural produce of pests or to kill fire ants and termites, Toxic and Chemical Substances Bureau Director Hsieh Yen-ju （謝燕儒） said, adding that the chemical is forbidden for use with animals to be used for food.
Farmers illegally using fipronil face fines of NT$15,000 to NT$150,000, according to the Agro-pesticides Management Act （農藥管理法）, Hsieh said.
The Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） caucus yesterday said that the government had been “slow” and “chaotic” in its response to the tainted eggs issue, urging the Democratic Progressive Party （DPP） administration to establish a standard screening procedure to prevent people from being exposed to unsafe food.
After witnessing similar incidents in other nations, the FDA and Bureau of Animal and Plant Health, Inspection and Quarantine have been negligent, allowing the same problem to affect Taiwan, KMT caucus vice secretary-general Chiang Wan-an （蔣萬安） said.
After dioxins were discovered in eggs in April, Chiang said he gave the two agencies clear instructions to improve communication when responding to instances of contaminated food products, but not only had they ignored the instructions, they are now denying each other’s work.
KMT caucus vice secretary-general Wang Hui-mei （王惠美） said that the use of fipronil on farms is not just an issue of food safety, but also a crime, as the pesticide was banned in January last year.
She urged agencies to identify perpetrators and issue punishments.
President Tsai Ing-wen’s （蔡英文） administration vowed to ensure food safety with its “five rings of defense of food safety,” but allocated less than 0.1 percent of the national budget — NT$312 million （US$10.3 million） — for the “food safety” category of the Forward-looking Infrastructure Program, Wang said, accusing the DPP of reneging on campaign promises.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
