pork (Photo:VCG)

The Chinese mainland has banned import of meat products from the island of Taiwan to prevent the spread of the pandemic and ractopamine, said Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council on Wednesday.

"To protect the health of the consumers, import of meats products containing ractopamine, are now banned on the mainland. In view of the highly pathogenic influenza and other epidemic outbreaks on the island of Taiwan, the mainland has banned import of all meat products produced there or transported through Taiwan," said Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson of the office.

Since January 1 this year, Taiwan opened its market to imports of ractopamine-containing port and beef over a period of 30 months. Mainland netizens are worried that ractopamine-contained meat and products will flow to the mainland market through the island.

Ractopamine is added to animal feed to promote meat leanness, and its usage is banned in most countries in the world.

The import and export of ractopamine and ractopamine hydrochloride have been banned since December 9, 2009 in China, according to the General Administration of Customs.

To prevent meat products containing ractopamine from entering the mainland market from Taiwan, the authorities have stepped up scrutiny lately, Zhu said.

"Some meat and its products have been seized by the customs from the postal parcels sent to the mainland and from the luggage of passengers entering the mainland from Taiwan. All of these have been dealt with in accordance with relevant regulations," Zhu introduced.

"If consumers find meat products from Taiwan on the market, they can report to local regulators. We also invite consumers to buy imported meat products through regular channels," Zhu noted.

Previous to Taiwan meat, Canadian pork was suspended from being exported to China in June 2019 after Chinese authorities found ractopamine residue in their pork products.