TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stopped the import of chopsticks made in China for fashion brand Loewe and of cherries from Chile due to the presence of potentially harmful chemicals, reports said Tuesday (Feb. 14).
The wooden chopsticks, manufactured for the Year of the Rabbit, contained 4-Aminoazobenzene coloring, a chemical product banned in Taiwan, per CNA. The FDA ordered the 202 sets of chopsticks, weighing a total of 25.14 kilograms, to be sent back or destroyed.
Loewe is a Spanish brand part of the French luxury fashion and drinks group LVMH Moet Hennessy – Louis Vuitton.
The 20 products listed by the FDA as violating Taiwan rules also included 120 metric tons of cherries imported from Chile. The seven batches of fruit showed excess levels of pesticides, the Liberty Times reported.
After the problem initially surfaced last November, the FDA asked Chile to submit documents showing how it planned to prevent a recurrence of the pesticide issue. The South American country said it was asking exporters to pay more attention to the problem, while the percentage of cherries caught with high pesticide levels has been falling.
While the FDA denied it was planning to ban the import of cherries from Chile, it said it would continue to test samples arriving in Taiwan.