Hsinchu City: Excessive use of drugs in meatballs must come from pigs

In response to the fact that Hsinchu Hairui Meatballs and Zhuang's Meatballs were found to contain excessive amounts of antibiotics yesterday, Lin Xueling, director of the Food Safety Division of the Hsinchu City Health Bureau, said that antibiotics are animal medicines and should be residues in the minced pork itself when businesses purchase meat from upstream manufacturers.

Lin Xueling, chief of the Food Safety Division of the Hsinchu Health Bureau, pointed out that the excessive use of drugs in meatballs must come from upstream pigs. (Photography by Luo Huiwen)

Lin Xueling said that in the past, only meatball manufacturers were tested for preservatives. This time, because the Department of Health's regional management center had previously conducted a nationwide random inspection of residual drug use in food animals, meatballs were found to be among them, so this was the first time that meatball animal residual drug use was randomly tested in Hsinchu City. The results showed that the products of Hsinchu Hairui Meatballs and Zhuang's Meatballs were found to contain excessive levels of sulfonamides and chloramphenicol.

Lin Xueling pointed out that antibiotics such as sulfonamides and chloramphenicol are commonly used by pig farmers and should have nothing to do with meatball manufacturers. Since animal drugs are not added in the process of making meatballs, the meatballs were found to contain excessive levels of drugs because the pigs were given the drugs and then slaughtered before they had time to metabolize them, and the contents were then detected in the minced meat. Sulfonamides are allowed, but chloramphenicol is prohibited from being used on pigs. If it is detected in the test, it means that the pig farmer is using the drug illegally.