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Questions raised
about beef origin after drugs found
Staff Writer, with CNA
Officials in Greater Tainan and Nantou are on the lookout for meat products
containing residues of growth-enhancement drugs after a sample of ractopamine-tainted
beef was found in Chiayi County.
The owner of the restaurant chain where the sample was taken said that it had
come from New Zealand.
Health officials in Greater Tainan yesterday confirmed that the beef sample
contained 1.29 parts per billion (ppb) of ractopamine.
They said the meat in question was a combination of different cuts, possibly
made up of layers of beef from different sources.
The restaurant said it had bought beef from a company in Greater Kaohsiung that
is supplied mainly by Shuh Sen Co (樹森開發) in Taipei, one of the major importers
of US beef in Taiwan. The company has warehouses in Keelung and Greater
Kaohsiung.
The issue of US beef imports containing residues of the feed additive
ractopamine has stirred a storm of controversy in Taiwan in recent weeks because
the government is considering relaxing the ban on the drug to increase imports
of US beef.
On Monday, 7,490kg of US beef imported by Shuh Sen found to have ractopamine
residue was destroyed in Taipei.
On Monday, health officials in Tainan said that a sample of another beef
shipment contained 10.93ppb of ractopamine.
Also on Monday, health officials found 0.88ppb of zilpaterol, another kind of
growth additive, in a sample of beef, reportedly from Australia, sold at a
supermarket in Chiayi County.
In Nantou County yesterday, a sample of sliced beef was also found to contain
zilpaterol. The beef, supplied by a company known as Yukuo Co (裕國冷凍), had been
sold to a nationwide supermarket chain under the label “Yukuo sliced beef
imported from Australia.” The company said it had delivered 3,000 packages of
the sliced beef to the PXmart (全聯實業) supermarket chain store since November last
year.
Nantou Health Bureau officials have started an investigation to track Yukuo’s
upstream suppliers and to find out whether beef from other countries is being
sold as Australian products.
As in Taiwan, the use of both zilpaterol and ractopamine is banned in beef
production in Australia, according to the Australian representative office in
Taipei.
Zilpaterol hydrochloride is an adrenergic agonist drug currently licensed in
Mexico and South Africa as a feed additive for cattle at slaughter age.
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