The Department of Health (DOH) issued the official notification Monday, confirming the Oct. 23 protocol allowing the import of bone-in beef, ground beef and beef offal from animals under 30 months of age.

The DOH said it would take practical measures to make sure that beef products potentially likely to cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease, such as eyes, skulls, spine cords and brains, would not enter Taiwan, even though the protocol legalized their import.

DOH Minister Yaung Chih-liang said he accepted a suggestion from ruling Kuomintang lawmakers that each batch of questionable beef products should be defrosted and checked in detail, in practice making the products unfit for consumption.

The Consumers' Foundation said the procedure was not enough to keep dangerous meat out of Taiwan. If defrosted, there was no guarantee the meat would not be used for other purposes, such as animal feed, thus still entering and contaminating the food chain, said Gaston Wu, the secretary-general of the consumers rights organization.

The agreement with the U.S. should be renegotiated and the people of Taiwan should have the right to make their feelings known through a referendum, Wu said.

In order to support both demands for renegotiation and for a referendum, the opposition Democratic Progressive Party launched protests inside the Legislative Yuan yesterday. The lawmakers occupied the dais while shouting slogans calling for legislative amendments and for a new round of talks with Washington.

The DPP amendment to the Food Hygiene Control Act would ban the production, sale, packaging, import and export of brains, eyes and other risky parts of cattle from areas where BSE occurred, DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen said at a joint news conference with party lawmakers.

The government did not have the ability to keep BSE out of the country completely and could buckle in the face of new U.S. demands to change the rules, Tsai said. The Legislative Yuan had the power to change things by approving the DPP amendment by the end of the day, she said.

The KMT, which holds a strong overall majority at the Legislature, said the DPP should not interrupt normal proceedings with a protest action against beef imports. A KMT lawmaker submitted an amendment proposal similar to the DPP motion.

After negotiation, the Legislative Yuan agreed to give the opposition proposal a second reading and to put both on the agenda for Friday. As long as there was no third reading, the questionable beef parts could not be imported, reports said.

Tainan County Magistrate Su Huan-jhih announced plans for a protest march against the opening of the beef imports from Taipei's eastside shopping district to the plaza in front of the Presidential Office building on Nov. 14.

Premier Wu Den-yih rejected plans for a referendum, saying they would involve too much "populist manipulation" and not enough rational thinking. He said the new measures gave him complete confidence that the government was able to protect the public's health.

Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin invited meat importers yesterday to sign a statement promising they would not import the risky products, but refused to sign a petition for a referendum presented to him by DPP members of the Taipei City Council.

Another top KMT local official, Taipei County Magistrate Chou Hsi-wei, said Taiwan should stop buying weapons from the U.S. if it wasn't possible to reopen beef talks with Washington.