Taipei, March 17 (CNA) Random spot-checks have uncovered the carcinogen formaldehyde in 20 percent of eating utensils made from plant fibers, including tableware sold by FamilyMart and Taiwan's largest coffee chain Lousia, the Executive Yuan's Consumer Protection Committee announced Friday.
A shipment of strawberries from Japan’s Tochigi Prefecture was seized at the border due to excessive levels of pesticide residue, the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Tuesday.
The shipment is the first batch of produce from a Japanese prefecture recently removed from an import ban to fail a border inspection, the agency said.
Taiwan on Feb. 21 lifted a ban on food imports from five Japanese prefectures, which was implemented following the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster. In addition to Tochigi and Fukushima, the ban included neighboring Chiba, Gunma and Ibaraki.
FDA Food Safety Division official Lin Hsu-yang