Another Toxic Vegetable Alert! Two Popular Greens Among Taiwanese Found with Pesticide Overruns, 338kg Destroyed, Non-Compliant List Revealed

The Ministry of Health and Welfare's Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) has released the latest list of imported products failing border inspections. This week, a total of 13 batches of products were intercepted. The violations cover a wide range, including containers from mainland China that failed leaching tests, French-imported cheese found with excessive microbial content, U.S.-imported corn, Indian-imported fragrant rice, and other agricultural products. Additionally, fresh vegetables imported from Thailand, such as lettuce and cilantro, were also blocked at the border due to pesticide residue violations.

The TFDA emphasized that all products failing border inspections have been processed according to regulations—either destroyed or returned—to ensure they do not enter the domestic consumer market. The government will continue to maintain strict border controls to safeguard the public's daily food hygiene and safety.

French Cheese Found with Pathogenic Bacteria? TFDA Implements 100% Batch-by-Batch Inspection!

Among the non-compliant items announced, French cheese imported by Lianfu Food Co., Ltd. has drawn attention. This batch, weighing 2.40 kilograms, was found during sampling to have most probable numbers (MPN) of E. coli ranging from 150 to 1,100 per gram. All five samples tested positive for pathogenic E. coli, severely violating domestic regulations.

According to Taiwan's microbial hygiene standards for food, for cheese products, no more than two out of five samples may have E. coli MPN values between 10 and 100. No sample may exceed 100 MPN/g, and pathogenic E. coli must not be detected at all. Liu Fang-Ming, Director of the TFDA Northern Regional Office, stated that border inspection measures for Lianfu Food Co., Ltd. have been upgraded to 100% batch-by-batch inspection. Over the past six months, a total of 1,461 batches of other French cheeses have been processed at the border, with six batches failing (0.4% failure rate), all due to E. coli or pathogenic E. coli violations. As a result, the TFDA has implemented enhanced inspection rates of 20% to 50% for other French cheeses from June 9 to August 20.

Thai Fresh Vegetables Contain Multiple Pesticides? Imported Cilantro Found with Residue Levels Hundreds of Times Over Limit?

In addition to dairy products, pesticide residue issues in fresh vegetables imported from Thailand have also raised concerns. A 104-kilogram shipment of lettuce imported by Sandoli Trading Co., Ltd. from Thailand was found to contain fenpyroximate pesticide residue at 0.007 ppm, far exceeding the legal limit of 0.001 ppm. Another batch from the same company, weighing 160 kilograms of Thai-imported cilantro, was simultaneously found to contain six pesticides: damifon, propiconazole, tebuconazole, prochloraz, fludioxonil, and flusilazole. Among these, propiconazole, tebuconazole, fludioxonil, and flusilazole are prohibited substances, while prochloraz residue reached 7.36 ppm—736 times the standard limit of 0.01 ppm—indicating a clear violation.

Yilin Industrial Co., Ltd. imported 74 kilograms of cilantro from Thailand, which was also found during inspection to contain tebuconazole at 0.23 ppm and prochloraz at 0.29 ppm, both exceeding the legal limit of 0.01 ppm. All the above agricultural products, which violate Article 15 of Taiwan's Food Safety and Sanitation Management Act, have been processed according to regulations via return or destruction.