Banned drugs detected in 3 goose meats from poultry and livestock products sold on the market

The Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health of the Department of Health implement a monitoring program for animal drug residues in commercially available food. In August, a total of 70 commercially available poultry and livestock products were sampled and tested, and the results showed that 3 of them did not comply with regulations. The illegal products were all goose meat, which contained residues of antibiotics that should not be detected.

In August, the Department of Health sampled 70 poultry and livestock products on the market, and the three illegal products were goose meat, which contained undetectable antibiotic residues. (Photo courtesy of Food and Drug Administration)

The Food and Drug Administration said that the samples randomly selected included 20 pieces of goose meat, 20 pieces of beef, 10 pieces of mutton and 20 pieces of poultry offal. The inspection items included: tetracyclines, quinolones and sulfonamides, chloramphenicol, nitrofuran metabolites, antiprotozoal agents, β-lactam antibiotics, β-receptor antibiotics, etc., a total of 72 animal drugs.

According to the "Animal Drug Residue Standards", goose meat must not contain chloramphenicol fluoroquinolone and chloramphenicol methylsulfonate, both of which are antibiotics. However, this time, one piece of goose meat in a restaurant in Taichung City and one in a traditional market in New Taipei City were found to contain 0.95 and 3.8 ppb of chloramphenicol; one piece of goose meat in Tainan City was found to contain 0.45 ppb of chloramphenicol.

The Food and Drug Administration said that the restaurant in Taichung City has been fined NT$30,000 for being unable to explain the source of its goods. As for the other two pieces of goose meat, the health bureau in the supplier's jurisdiction has been notified, and will work with agricultural agencies to trace the source of supply, the cause of the residue, and whether the breeding environment is contaminated. If the residue is caused by illegal use by the breeder, the agricultural policy unit will be asked to strengthen source management at the production end and deal with it according to law.