The Food and Drug Administration today announced the repeal of the tolerance level for fluopyram in tea; the Council of Agriculture made six major commitments to improve food safety risk communication.

As for the recent back-and-forth over the opening of the pesticide fluopyram for use on tea, Premier Lin Chuan ultimately made the final decision, asking the Ministry of Health and Welfare to promptly sign off on repealing that notice; if there are no other opinions during the 60-day advance notice period, fluopyram will not be permitted for use on tea. In addition, the Council of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Ministry of Education held a civic meeting this morning to communicate with civic groups on issues including the standards for setting pesticide residue tolerance limits, the trial implementation of the "four chapters and one Q" program for school lunches, and Far Eastern's use of expired margarine to remake products.

In the end, the Council of Agriculture also reached six conclusions, including strengthening risk communication and policy explanation, planning to proactively disclose new pesticides at the application stage, making the background of pesticide use transparent, accelerating the promotion of the Plant Doctor Act, and more. It further promised that in the future it will establish a "food safety platform" to integrate all relevant information, increase civic participation, and improve public understanding of public policy.