The food additive scare gripping the nation has continued to escalate, involving an ever-expanding list of affected products, from health drinks to sweeteners and fruit jelly products through to health foods and even medicines. People are now genuinely concerned about the issue of food safety, not knowing what type of foods they can actually rely on to be safe to eat.
We’ve had food safety scares before, but now that the details are coming to light, a growing number of food products have been found to contain banned additives, and in some cases even the manufacturers were clueless about what they were putting in their products. They had never tested whether the additives were safe, nor had the government investigated them. Neither did consumers question why the fruit juice they were buying in stores was so much more fragrant, so much sweeter, so much more brightly colored than the fresh juice they pressed themselves at home. If it hadn’t been for one researcher taking it upon herself to do one more test, the whole nation would still be tucking into foods that could well be harmful to their health, without the slightest clue of the risks.
Who knows whether the food producers were already aware of the health risks posed by the chemicals they were using as clouding agents? It might be that they were simply following a formula passed down in the company over several decades, or they might have been using the additive in the full knowledge of the potential health risks, trying to cut costs and boost their profits. Regardless, from now on the regulations on food additives have to be made clearer and the fines for non-compliance need to be heavier.
Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, or DEHP, one of the substances in question, has been used in the food we buy for decades now. Over that time, it has been used in an ever-increasing range of food and drinks. You could say it is a bit of a trade secret. This means that the government agency responsible for monitoring food in this country has not been doing its duty. Virtually everyone in this country, to a greater or lesser extent, has consumed products containing DEHP. Even Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) has admitted that he has drunk beverages containing DEHP, making him another victim of the government’s dereliction of duty as far as food safety is concerned.
The Department of Health has launched an initiative it calls “D-Day” to check for foods containing DEHP. This doesn’t go far enough. It’s shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. What the public really wants is for the government to be more proactive in checking whether food products contain harmful additives. It is supposed to be there to protect the public, after all.
However, there is another side to this. Consumers might want to reflect on how their own demands for fresh, tasty, aromatic foods at low prices might be pushing companies to abandon natural ingredients in favor of artificial additives to keep costs down. How can one expect to eat healthily while continuously demanding food at budget prices?
If consumers are more reasonable in their expectations and drink mineral or boiled water instead of sugary refined drinks, we will have far fewer weight-related diseases. If they stop demanding day-glo dinners, producers will hold back on the food coloring. If they no longer expect gourmet meals right from the packet, producers will no longer feel the need to drown their products in seasoning.
If we curb our expectations and learn to appreciate more natural foods, it will be better for everyone’s health.
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