Taipei: Six tons of U.S. cherries contain pesticide malathion

Nearly six tons of cherries recently imported from the United States have been found to contain the pesticide malathion, the Department of Health (DOH) said Saturday.

Pan Chih-kuan, a director of the DOHs Food and Drug Administration, said the two batches of cherries contained 0.02 parts per million and 0.03 ppm of malathion, respectively. Taiwans regulations do not allow any trace amounts of the substance in cherries.

The two importers are now applying to have the two batches re-examined. If they are still found to contain the pesticide, the first batch, which had not been cleared by customs, will be returned to the shipper, and the second batch, which had been released to the importer to keep refrigerated pending the results of the examination, will be confiscated and destroyed.

Pan said that if a third batch of U.S. imported cherries were to fail the examination within six months, the DOH will ask the U.S. to come up with a plan to improve the situation.

"We will also step up the examination of all cherries imported from the United States," he added.