There is something wrong with Australia and New Zealand cattle! Lin Jieliang: Labeling the origin of food to build a food resume

On the afternoon of the 12th, the Department of Health announced the results of the inspection of imported meat on the market. The beef containing clenbuterol not only comes from the United States, but also from Australia and New Zealand! Two pieces of beef imported from Australia and two pieces from New Zealand were found to contain "ractopamine", and one piece of Australian beef was found to contain the more toxic lean meat stimulant "zilpaterol". Toxicologists suspected that they might be American beef mixed in, and called on the government to legislate in the future to require mandatory labeling of origin, but it is not enough, and the establishment of a food history record should be used as a supporting measure to identify the illegal source.

Australian and New Zealand beef sold on the market has also been found to contain clenbuterol, but doctors suspect it may be mixed with American beef. (Photography by Zhang Yawen)

The Department of Health and county and city health bureaus have sampled commercially available beef for ractopamine from January to March 11 this year. A total of 219 items have been tested, and 36 items have been found to contain ractopamine, of which 32 were imported from the United States, the largest number. Surprisingly, 2 items were imported from Australia, 2 from New Zealand, and another item of Australian beef was found to contain zilpaterol.

Pan Zhikuan, director of the regional management center, said that Australia and New Zealand, like our country, also do not allow the use of ractopamine in cattle. The Department of Health will continue to instruct local health bureaus to track the flow of ractopamine to find out whether any manufacturers are using American beef as substitutes, or whether any unscrupulous elements in Australia and New Zealand are secretly using it.

As for 16 cases that have been investigated and punished, the violators were fined a total of NT$600,000 and 12,602 kilograms of beef were sealed, of which 6,771 kilograms have been destroyed and the rest is awaiting destruction.

The Executive Yuan plans to conditionally open up the import of beef with ractopamine residues. The Department of Health will submit a draft amendment to the Food Sanitation Management Act to the Executive Yuan for review this week. Deputy Director-General Hsiao Mei-ling said that the Department of Health's version only amends the "mandatory labeling" law, which is consistent with the 16-word policy direction proposed by the Executive Yuan: "safety allowed, separation of cattle and pigs, mandatory labeling, and exclusion of offal."

Lin Jieliang, a toxicologist at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou, said that both ractopamine and zilpaterol, two types of lean meat stimulants, can increase heart rate and blood pressure. Currently, the U.S. FDA has approved their use. Therefore, he reasonably suspects that the Australian and New Zealand beef that was detected was actually mixed with American beef, or was first sold from the United States to Australia and New Zealand, and then sold to Taiwan.

He pointed out that the government has been emphasizing mandatory labeling so that the public can know the origin of meat, but if it is not accompanied by a package of food history, the origin may also be untrue. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a food history from ranches, large, medium and small distributors. If violations are found, they must bear joint liability in order to eliminate this illegal behavior.