Taipei: A shipment of ceramic bowls under the brand name Zara Home imported from China has been intercepted at Taiwan’s customs after being found to contain excessive amounts of heavy metals, the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) announced Tuesday. The ceramic bowls were found to contain 10 parts per million (ppm) of lead, surpassing Taiwan’s legal limit of 5 ppm for food-related products.

According to Focus Taiwan, the affected shipment, imported by ITX Taiwan B.V. Taiwan Branch, was either returned or destroyed after failing the customs inspections. As a result of this non-compliance, the importer will now be subject to more stringent inspections, increasing the scrutiny from 2-10 percent of each shipment to 20-50 percent.

TFDA Deputy Director-General Lin Chin-fu revealed that despite the stricter protocol, data from the past six months showed that only one out of the last 257 shipments of the product category imported by the company failed inspection. Furthermore, only two out of 4,287 shipments from China of similar products failed inspection during the same period.

In addition to the ceramic bowls, another shipment from China comprising foldable utensil sets weighing 68.09 kg was stopped at the border after failing dissolution tests, as confirmed by Lin. Melamine tableware imported by Taiwan Melamine Products Industrial Co., Ltd. also failed similar tests, as reported by the TFDA.

These three products were among seven non-compliant items identified in the TFDA’s latest border inspection report. Other subpar products included Japanese fresh citrus, chopped Indian parsley, and American fresh oranges, which were rejected for containing pesticide residues above the legally permitted levels. Additionally, a shipment of Chinese deer antler extract powder was intercepted due to violations involving bleaching agents.