The Ministry of Economic Affairs continues to study beef offal imports; legislators urge expanding meetings and publishing verbatim transcripts
To move forward with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Ministry of Economic Affairs plans to permit the import of six categories of U.S. beef offal, including head meat, cheek meat, esophageal muscle, beef tallow, blood vessels, and bone marrow. Democratic Progressive Party legislator Tien Chiu-chin held a press conference today, pointing out that the six categories of U.S. beef offal are adjacent to high-risk internal organ parts; for example, blood vessels may be cut from the heart or lungs, yet the Ministry of Health and Welfare insists they are not internal organs. Moreover, the Ministry of Health and Welfare consulted experts but does not dare to release the meeting minutes, which is simply black-box operation. She called for expanding the meetings as in the ractopamine case, holding a webcast, and clarifying doubts for the public.
Although last week legislators Ting Shou-chung, Lee Ching-hua, and others on the Legislative Yuan's Economics Committee passed an interim proposal demanding that the Executive Yuan prohibit the import of U.S. and Canadian beef offal, the interim proposal is not legally binding, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs is still continuing to deliberate whether to allow imports.
To block the import of U.S. beef offal, Tien Chiu-chin today held a press conference titled "U.S. beef karmic obstacles, not just internal organs; reject mad cow disease risk, oppose U.S. beef offal imports." Attendees included Chen Shun-sheng, attending physician in the Department of Neurology at Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, and Yen Tsung-hai, attending physician in the Department of Nephrology at Chang Gung Hospital, who discussed the risks of U.S. beef from a medical perspective.
Yen Tsung-hai said that the United States was once a mad cow disease epidemic area, and the six categories of U.S. beef offal proposed for import are almost all soft tissues adjacent to internal organs and may carry variant prion protein risk. In addition, U.S. beef feed previously had ractopamine problems. From the perspective of public health, he does not recommend allowing imports.
Chen Shun-sheng pointed out that offal refers to the organs within the three major body cavities of humans or animals - the chest, abdomen, and pelvis - and the tissues connected to them, including nerves, blood vessels, lymph, ligaments, fat, and peritoneal fibrous tissue. Internal organs may be infected with abnormal prion protein and are highly associated with the risk of new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, with an incubation period of up to ten years. He suggested the government should establish a permanent research unit.
Tien Chiu-chin said U.S. beef has already risen to a national security issue. Food safety problems are especially severe today. "There are too many links from production to becoming food, let alone cross-national transport." The government should re-examine every link in the import process and publish verbatim transcripts of meetings.