Taipei, April 15 (CNA) A shipment of ceramic bowls under the brand name of Zara Home imported from China has been intercepted at Taiwan’s customs after being found to contain excessive amounts of heavy metals, the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) said Tuesday.
The ceramic bowls contained 10 parts per million (ppm) of lead, surpassing the legal limit of 5 ppm for such products under Taiwan’s regulations for food utensils, containers and packaging, according to the TFDA.
The affected shipment, imported by ITX Taiwan B.V. Taiwan Branch, was either returned or destroyed for failing customs inspections.
Because of the non-compliance, the importer will now face stricter inspections going from 2-10 percent of each shipment to 20-50 percent.
The stricter protocol will be carried out even though data from the past six months show that only one of the last 257 shipments of the product category the company imported failed inspection, TFDA Deputy Director-General Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said.
During the same period, only two out of 4,287 shipments from China of the same product category failed inspection, Lin added.
Another shipment of foldable utensil sets imported from China, weighing 68.09 kg, was also stopped at the border after failing dissolution tests, according to Lin.
Melamine tableware imported by Taiwan Melamine Products Industrial Co., Ltd. also failed dissolution tests, according to the TFDA.
The three products were among seven non-compliant products flagged in the TFDA’s latest border inspection report.
Other subpar products included Japanese fresh citrus, chopped Indian parsley and American fresh oranges, which were rejected at the border for containing pesticide residues above the legally permitted level, while a shipment of Chinese deer antler extract powder was intercepted due to bleaching agent violations.
