Following the Taiwan Food & Drug Administration’s (TFDA) clarification that bone marrow, blood vessels, head meat, cheek meat, weasand and tallow were not banned by the island’s Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation, on 16 February Taiwan’s Bureau of Foreign Trade introduced a set of import serial numbers for these items.
The decision was highly controversial in Taiwan, which has had complicated relations with the US over the supposed health dangers associated with American meat imports for some years.
After a complete ban on US beef imports was implemented in 2003, rules were relaxed in 2006 to allow imports of boneless beef and, in 2009, an opening to American beef on the bone, minced beef, processed beef from cattle younger than 30 months and 11 by-products followed. The move also comes as South Korea announced a ban on Canadian beef exports following a recent BSE outbreak in Alberta.
"This is a clarification only and not a lifting of our restrictions against US beef," Pan Jhy-quan, director of the TFDA Food Safety Division, told GlobalMeatNews. "The BSE-related ban against internal organs will continue, and we are now simply pointing out that these six types may be imported," he added. He declined to speculate how the six by-products would be used by food processors and consumers, but recalled that after the 11 by-products were cleared in 2009, only one of them – ‘cowhells’ – was actually shipped into the country by importers.
Nonetheless, this latest liberalisation move by the government has been heavily criticised by lawmakers from all political camps, the farming sector as well as non-governmental consumer organisations. Critics claimed the government was now risking public health by turning the by-products into a bargaining chip to secure Taiwan’s participation in the proposed US-involved Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) regional trade bloc, a notion the government has denied.
"The government says that few people would eat these six by-products, but some experts say that it will end up in burgers and will open the door to genetically-modified US meat," said Du Yu, chief executive officer of the Chen-Li Task Force, a group of university professors concerned with agricultural reform, summing up a long list of complaints.
"The public most wants to know how safety is ensured, but the government says nothing to address these fears, just presenting a secretly-negotiated fait accompli," he added.
Officials countered by stressing that the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has upgraded the US beef industry’s status to "negligible BSE risk" status, and they further pledged there were no considerations to lift an import ban on US pork products containing the leanness-enhancing agent ractopamine. Taiwan produces little beef domestically, but is estimated to produce 8 million pigs per year.
Taiwan’s food sector has been reeling from a string of food safety scandals surrounding adulterated cooking oils, raising concerns about food health issues on the island, in general.