Taiwan's food regulator on Sept. 28 caught US potatoes totaling 339.58 tonnes with solanine above the limit for the first time at the border. All were returned or destroyed and none reached the market, but lawmakers across parties are pressing over inspection intensity.
Taiwan's Food and Drug Administration, under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, on Sept. 28 caught imported US potatoes with solanine above the limit at a border inspection for the first time. The lot, declared by Hwa Yuan Foods, weighed 339.58 tonnes. Testing found 248 mg of solanine per kilogram, above the 200 mg limit.
광고 문의 · 300×250The FDA said the potatoes were not cleared by customs and did not enter domestic processing. All will be returned or destroyed, and none reached Taiwan's market.
Eased import rules are the fuse
The background is the Taiwan-US trade agreement. In line with it, the Ministry of Agriculture has since February eased rules on importing US sprouted potatoes. Previously a whole batch was sent back if sprouted potatoes were mixed in; the new rule allows processing after the sprouted parts are removed.
Solanine is a natural toxin concentrated in potato sprouts and green parts, and eating too much can cause vomiting, abdominal pain and other symptoms of poisoning. That it is hard to tell by eye adds to the worry. Scholars said visual inspection alone cannot guarantee 100% and urged sampling imported potatoes for solanine content.
Inspection intensity and the government's explanation
The FDA said it kept the sampling rate for US potatoes at the existing 2% to 10% and raised the rate only for the importer involved, to 20% to 50%. Lawmakers from both camps and Yunlin County Magistrate Chang Li-shan demanded wider inspection.
The row grew because Premier Cho Jung-tai had earlier said potatoes would be inspected 'one by one,' then clarified that he meant the Ministry of Agriculture's visual quarantine rather than chemical laboratory testing. The public question is how the screening actually works.
A third view
Food safety and trade openness are in tension in every country. Korea and Japan have also seen similar fights over quarantine standards for imported farm goods. The case shows that when rules are eased, an inspection system and accountability for explanations need to be designed along with them.
