Northwest Horticultural Council
Country Alerts
Taiwan Increases Pesticide MRL Inspections
Current Situation: Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) has announced that it will increase pesticide MRL inspection of U.S. apple imports to 20-50% of shipments starting this week (March 15, 2021) for an observation period of six months ending on September 14, 2021. If no further detections are made during this time, TFDA will revert to the standard testing rate of 2-10%. If violations are found, TFDA will increase inspections to 100%. The Northwest Horticultural Council has received confirmation of the change in inspection levels from the American Institute of Taiwan (AIT).
Background: The three reported violations include two detections of the fungicide Penbotec (Pyrimethanil) and one detection of the insecticide Exirel (Cyantraniliprole).
The TDFA MRL for Pyrimethanil is 7 ppm.
There is no Taiwan MRL for Cyantraniliprole and therefore the default MRL is 0.01 ppm.
Contact: If you have any questions, please contact Northwest Horticultural Council vice president for scientific affairs, David Epstein, at 509-654-3713.
Updated: 3/18/2021