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Hairy crabs from PRC found to have DDT

2005-12-01
2005-12-01 / Taiwan News, Staff Reporter / By Chang Ling-yin

A shipment of hairy crabs imported from China, some of which have already been sold and eaten, was found to contain residues of the pesticide DDT, the Department of Health said yesterday.
This was discovered during a random DOH inspection of aquatic products sold in markets throughout the island. The department began the inspections in September in an effort to determine whether residues of drugs or pesticides were retained in such products, and also to assess the level of metals they might contain.

According to the DOH, the hairy crabs sold in three supermarkets - Carrefour, Hsi-Mei and Hsing-Loong, in Changhua County - were found to contain residues of DDT.

The Changhua County Public Health Bureau said yesterday that as soon as it received the information from the DOH on November 4, it immediately contacted the three supermarkets to try to trace the source of the hairy crabs. However, at that point, some of the crabs had already been sold, the bureau said.

Carrefour also said that as soon as it learned that there was a problem with the product, it recalled all the hairy crabs that had been sold and has not put any more on sale since. However Carrefour could not be sure how many of the contaminated crabs were sold to consumers.

According to the health bureau, the three supermarkets said that the shipment of contaminated hairy crabs came from a company in Taichung City and an international trading company in Taoyuan County.

The Changhua County Public Health Bureau therefore asked the Taichung City and Taoyuan County Health Bureaus to trace the source of the hairy crabs, and it was found that the contaminated shipment originated from a single importer in Taipei.