460,000 Problematic Eggs Consumed due to Delay in Testing|46萬毒蛋流市面 農委會檢驗流程挨批

While Taiwan domestic market is suffering from a shortage of eggs, another egg incident has caught attention. Eggs from Shun-Hung ranch in Changhua County failed to pass the safety test and the announcement was delayed after the lunar Chinese New Year holidays. It has led to the consumption of 460,000 problematic eggs by the public who was unaware of the issue.


Before the lunar Chinese New Year, the eggs from the Shun Hung ranch in Changhua County were found to have contained an excessive amount of Fipronil, an insecticide. The finding was published only after the New Year holidays, which led to the public consuming 460,000 problematic eggs. A legislator questions the delayed announcement by the Council of Agriculture, saying the latest incident once again disproves the Tsai Ing-wen Administration's claim to put more focus on food safety.

It took three days just to send the samples to the lab, and the testing process took close to one month. The results were finally announced in February, after waiting for almost 20 days, and after the public had already consumed the eggs.

The legislator also said that the Changhua County government already spotted issues in the batch of eggs on January 25, however, the eggs were later sent to the National Animal Industry Foundation for a second round of testing. The process was heavily delayed due to the New Year holidays and a large number of backed up tests, and it wasn't until after the holidays that the foundation found out the concentration of Fipronil has exceeded the normal level by triple to sextuple, and it was too late to stop the circulation of eggs in the market at that point. The legislator also criticized the Council of Agriculture for being inefficient since it still hasn't traced the source of the insecticide contamination.

Three separate department have been inspecting the problem, and none of them found the source after two weeks? Not to mention, the public has consumed 460,000 of the problematic eggs, who should be responsible for this?

We have asked the National Animal Industry Foundation to reflect on their mistakes. As to us, we reviewed our own process, including the speed at which the spot checks are carried out.

The Council of Agriculture stresses that it has asked the National Animal Industry Foundation to review their process, and to keep the period of spot checks to within 48 hours. The council also says that it will dispatch staff members to the ranch in question to inspect the environment in hopes to trace the source of contamination within two weeks.