Chef caught trying to bring 40 kgs. of beef into Taiwan
2015/05/27 17:46:33
Taipei, May 27 (CNA) Forty kilograms of prized black wagyu beef from Japan brought in by a Taiwanese chef were seized after he arrived in Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport from Tokyo on Tuesday night, customs officers said Wednesday.
The officials said the beef, wrapped in seven separate packages, was found in the chef's two checked suitcases after arriving in Taiwan on a Delta Air Lines flight.
The beef will be destroyed because of quarantine requirements under the Statute for Prevention and Control of Infectious Animal Disease.
Customs officials said the chef did not have an export inspection certificate for the meat from the Japanese government, as required under quarantine regulations, and he did not declare the meat as he was going through customs.
The chef said that he bought the beef produced in Kagoshima on the island of Kyushu for his own restaurant in Taichung.
(By Chiu Chun-chin and Lilian Wu)
