Blanket inspection for tainted clouding agents

FOOD ADDITIVE SCARE: Wed, Jun 01, 2011Nationwide store inspections begin D'S-DAY: Three retailers were fined because they did not follow certification instructions. Meanwhile, the premier urged laboratories to speed up tests on suspect products Members of the EcoWaste Coalition's "Alert Toxic Patrollers" hold placards and banners in Manila yesterday urging shop owners to stop selling Taiwanese beverage and food products until they have been certified free of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, or DEHP. Photo: AFPA nationwide inspection of five categories of food and beverages in stores was launched yesterday, the first day companies were required by the Department of Health (DOH) to present certificates showing that their products were free of six prohibited chemicals.Manufacturers could also provide documentation indicating that their products were not made with ingredients sourced from Yu Shen Chemical Co (昱伸香料有限公司) or Pin Han Perfumery Co (賓漢香料公司), two suppliers that have been found to use di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, or DEHP, and diisononyl phthalate, or DINP, respectively, in clouding agents they sold to food processors. The other chemicals targeted for inspection are di-n-octyl phthalate (DNOP), diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) and butylbenzyl phthalate (BBP). Companies that failed to meet the Monday midnight deadline to produce the required certification will have their products removed from the market. The five categories of products are sports drinks, juices, tea drinks, fruit jams or syrups, and tablets or powders, all of which usually contain clouding agents. Three retailers were fined yesterday because they had not followed the Department of Health's instructions on providing proof, including one branch of Carrefour and two branches of Hi-Life, Food and Drug Administration Director-General Kang Jaw-jou (康照洲) said. Kang said that other outlets such as small shops and night market food stalls that sell beverages would also be inspected, but the first wave of inspections would target large supermarkets and chain stores. Violators face a maximum fine of NT$300,000 under the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法). Those who comply with the new requirements, but do so in a manner that is inconvenient to consumers, such as putting the documentation in a folder that consumers must flip through in order to find product information, will be instructed by health officials to make improvements, the officials said. In a visit to the Department of Health yesterday, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said laboratories around the country need to speed up their work because of the huge backlog of products needing to be tested.Any food and beverage manufacturer caught falsifying certificates on the chemical content of their products would be punished, he said.Meanwhile, Hong Kong health authorities banned two Taiwanese drinks after tests showed they were tainted with excessive amounts of DEHP.They said six samples from different batches of Speed sports drink and Speed lemon flavor sports drink, both made by the same Taiwanese company, were found to be laced with DEHP. Taipei also warned Manila last week that DEHP could have been illegally added to products that were exported to the Philippines. "Our government has asked Taiwan for a list, and we are tracking these products," Philippine Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman Jesusa Joyce Cirunay said yesterday.She did not name the brands on the list, saying no traces of DEHP contamination have been found and there have been no reports of people falling ill in the Philippines. Some supermarkets in the Philippines have voluntarily pulled various Taiwanese beverages from their shelves after receiving reports they may be contaminated, reports from Manila said. While low doses are generally safe, high doses or prolonged exposure to DEHP could have harmful effects, such as retarding the development of boys' testes, Cirunay said.