Page 38 - 2018食藥署年報(英文版)

(3) Lotus leaf steamed pork ribs case
In May 2017, the Department received a report from Taipei Municipal Government Health
Bureau that a person came home from the restaurant with “steamed pork ribs” to reheat and eat
had suspected food poisoning symptoms such as sore throat and mouth pain. The Health Bureau
immediately sent staff to sample for the Department to inspect.
After rapid detection of real-time PCR combined with DNA species identification
technology developed by the Department, it was confirmed that the outer layer of the “steamed
pork ribs in leaves” was from a poisonous plant “Giant Elephant's Ear.” The Department
immediately informed the test results and issued a press release (Figure 2-18), calling on the

restaurant operators to confirm the ingredients and teaching the public how to identify toxic Giant
Elephant's Ear and implement the techniques to safeguard the health of the people.

Figure2-18 Comparison of the appearance of poisonous plants and edible ones

2. Identification of unknown compounds

(1) Nitenpyram and Chlorantraniliprole derivatives were block at the border
In recent years, international express delivery is getting popular. In 2017, the number of

simple customs imports more than 30 million items. However, the international express route has
also become a pathway for illegal commodity imports. Unscrupulous people are hiding drugs,
chemicals, medicinal products and others in the delivery goods and using the runaround mailing
route to increase the difficulty of inspection.
Two express post parcels were confiscated by the Customs Administration as the declared
items did not matched with the actual. The two parcels were identified as unknown powder and
found negative on routine pesticide tests. TFDA investigated these two samples by using high-
resolution mass spectrometer. The unknown compound structure elucidation was done by the
combination of the accurate molecular weight, isotope ratio, and fragments of the unknown. Two

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