Naturally golden, no need for sulfites: Taitung No. 7 daylily beats them all

To satisfy local demand for golden, crisp daylily buds that keep well, processors often use excessive sulfites. Inspection results released last month by the Food and Drug Administration showed that the failure rate in snack foods and catering was still 30 percent, a long-standing food safety concern.

To solve the problem at its source, the Taitung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station developed the "Taitung No. 7" variety, suited to "sulfur-free processing," with good crispness, color and aroma. Chishang farmer Zhang Muchang, who obtained the variety patent 3 years ago, said, "Taitung No. 7 is full of the taste of sunshine and sells out in seconds." Unfortunately, its resistance to rust disease is relatively poor, and this year's cold damage delayed flowering and the number of seedlings is still small, so production cannot meet demand, a problem still to be overcome.

Frequent government inspections, farmers scrambling, hoping No. 7 will help them transition

Farmer Zhang Muchang, who applied to the Taitung agricultural research station 3 years ago to grow Taitung No. 7, said, "Sulfur-free No. 7 really sells out in seconds!" He said last year's output was under 500 kg, which he gave to relatives and friends to taste, and the rate of follow-up inquiries and purchases was astonishing, "but rust disease makes Taitung No. 7 hard to grow, and with the cold damage, it should be the flowering season now but they still haven't bloomed."

He also said that since switching to Taitung No. 7, he changed his processing method to sulfur-free processing and no longer uses sulfites. He added that the health bureau is now "very strict" about sulfur dioxide in daylily buds, and many daylily farmers do not know how to adapt, some even abandoning cultivation; but if Taitung No. 7 can resist disease, it will be an opportunity for daylily farmers to transition.

Apart from disease resistance, however, Taitung No. 7's seedling supply is also relatively limited. Xue Mingtong said the station still propagates seedlings by division, so the number is small and some time is needed to overcome the shortage. On the processing side, though, the station has completed the development of sulfur-free processing technology, so once Taitung No. 7 seedling numbers are sufficient, producing golden, crisp daylily buds will no longer depend on sulfites.