Meat hygiene and safety! Lai Qingde calls for: Eat meat and care for farmers

Tainan City Council Speaker Lai Mei-hui and several council members expressed deep concern over the recent drop in domestic pork and chicken prices. On the 22nd, they invited the Tainan City Swine Farming Association, Tainan City Chicken Farming Association and Agriculture Bureau personnel to hold a press conference at the City Council titled "Tainan Meat is Very Safe, Eat Meat with the Farmers in Mind". They tasted pork and chicken on the spot and emphasized that all livestock farms had been tested and found to contain no clenbuterol, and that there were no safety or hygiene issues. They called on citizens to eat domestic meat with confidence. Mayor Lai Ching-te also assured based on the test results that there is no avian influenza problem in Tainan City.

Tainan Mayor Lai Ching-te said that Tainan's chickens and pigs do not have problems with avian influenza and ractopamine, and the public can eat them with peace of mind. (Photo provided by Taiwan Good News)

Speaker Lai Mei-hui said that Tainan City's livestock industry has been very cooperative with the government's regulations prohibiting the use of clenbuterol. At the same time, the city government's Bureau of Agriculture has also strengthened control over livestock farms from the source, cooperating with the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine to carry out pig hair sampling, blood drawing, meat and feed inspections. During this period, no clenbuterol was detected in Tainan City's livestock farms.

Speaker Lai Mei-hui expressed deep concern over the decline in domestic pork and chicken prices due to the influence of hormones, and urged the Council of Agriculture of the Executive Yuan to quickly initiate production and marketing adjustment measures, implement the 95 mechanism to eliminate breeding sows and breeding hens, freeze excess pigs and chickens, and strictly control the source at livestock farms to restore public confidence and stabilize pork and chicken prices.

The Bureau of Agriculture stated that the Tainan City Government is committed to fulfilling its responsibility to ensure the safety of meat products. The Health Bureau will take the lead in setting up an inspection room to strengthen the inspection of commercially available meat products. The Bureau of Agriculture will also conduct multiple inspections on livestock farms through random inspections of feed and livestock and poultry meat testing to ensure the safety of pork and chicken food in Tainan City. The public is encouraged to purchase with confidence.