The Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday that protein powder imported from China was found to contain 1.90 parts per million (ppm) to 5.03ppm of melamine.
Health authorities randomly tested 13 batches of protein powder, six of which were contaminated with melamine.
The tainted powder was produced by two companies in China — Jilin Jinyi Egg Products Co Ltd (吉林金翼蛋品有限公司) and Dalian Green Snow Egg Product Co, Ltd (大連綠雪蛋品發展有限公司).
Of the 393 tonnes of protein powder imported from China this year, 261 tonnes imported from Jilin Jinyi and Dalian Green Snow were found to be contaminated with melamine, deputy health minister Cheng Shou-hsia (鄭守夏) said at a press conference yesterday.
Protein powder is used in the food industry as a legal food additive.
It is commonly used to produce foam and add cohesiveness.
The department’s Bureau of Food and Drug Safety on Sunday randomly tested 40 samples of ham, vegetarian ham, fish paste and cakes, which are all products commonly made with protein powder. No melamine was detected in these finished products, Cheng said.
The 261 tonnes of tainted powder were imported by Kuohui (國暉食品香料化工有限公司), Paoli (寶立興業股份有限公司), Union Chemical Industrial Co Ltd (六和化工股份有限公司) and Ali-Mon Co (育盟股份有限公司).
Union Chemical imported malt extract and creamer found to contain melamine last month.
The four local companies have warehouses in Taipei, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Taoyuan counties.
Local health departments have already begun tracking down and recalling the powder, Cheng said.
Cheng emphasized that the department used one of the most sensitive testing methods — liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry — which can detect melamine levels as low as 0.05ppm.
Cheng said that the department is requiring all companies that have imported protein powder from China, whether or not they have been found to contain melamine, to take the materials off the market.
The department also announced a ban on all imports of protein powder materials from China.
Taiwan imports about 704 tonnes of protein powder a year from countries including Germany, France, Sweden and Japan, so Taiwanese businesses can replace the China-made protein powder with supplies from elsewhere, Cheng said.
Contaminated milk powder, laced with the chemical melamine, has been blamed for causing the deaths of four infants and sickening more than 54,000 others in China.
Melamine is added to milk powder by some companies in China to falsely register foods as having a high protein content.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS