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Updated Monday, November 9, 2009 9:26 am TWN, The China Post news staff Rejecting U.S. beef is best way to keep safe: expertsThey pointed out that the public uproar over the U.S. pressure to force the government here to widen imports of American beef products and lawmakers' plan of revising existing regulations for a direct ban on certain beef products underline the unfair international practice dictated by strong powers. Taiwan has been prohibited from shipping its pork to many nations since the 1997 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, which is not a life-threatening livestock illness, they said. However, the handful nations with mad cow disease cases have forced other nations to import their beef products. The mad cow disease caused 168 confirmed human deaths in the period of 1995 to 1996, they said. Despite the government efforts of establishing tighter beef quarantine and inspection through administrative measures plus the boycott of many restaurants and retailers, there is no guarantee for the safety of beef products like skulls, backbones, brain matter, and certain intestine parts and organs, they noted. They also cast doubts over the effectiveness of public resistance to the eased beef imports by holding a referendum for reopening the talks on beef trade. The best way to shield themselves from safety hazards that could be caused by imported products is to reject the purchase and use of beef products from abroad, they said. Consumers should especially stay away from the cattle's internal organs, ground beef, and bones from the U.S. This will be an effective way to show importers that there will be no profits for them if they insist on shipping such products to the Taiwan market, they said. In order to eliminate possible side effects, the government and legislators should team up to amend the rules and ban imports of all products made of cattle materials from areas infected with mad cow disease. They said the prohibited products should include cattle bone powder for teeth and other medical operations. New rules should also be drawn up to require the destruction of kitchen waste involving American beef products with extremely high heat at incinerators or facilities for medical wastes, they added. Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here Comments November 9, 2009 olsonandko@ Reply The notion that U.S. beef is life-threatening or even remotely dangerous is just plain alarmist and delusional. Taiwan does not need to import old beef (older than 2 years, in my opinion) nor any part of the spinal cord and brain. There is NO mad cow disease present in the U.S. for the basic reason that producers cannot make money selling a dangerous product. Some adults in Taiwan need to stand up and say that enough is enough. This is just plain political nonsense with virtually NO science or medical expertise involved in the alleged comments from "medical experts". WW Olson November 9, 2009 in.sanxia@ It would be great if our government would make an effort to clean up our home produced foods of pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers. When we eat locally farmed goods, we are eating a cancer stew!!! November 9, 2009 skier_rich@ This is a misrepresentaion of facts. 168 cases of confirmed human deaths from 1995-1996, but 0 from US beef. It's the same number as Taiwan beef, 0. Most of it was from people eating beef from the UK. |
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