The government yesterday ordered certain food and drink products that use emulsifiers to be removed from stores unless they can provide proof that their products are free of the chemical di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP).
Affected items include sports drinks, juice, tea beverages, syrup and jams, as well as tablet supplements and powdered food products, Department of Health (DOH) Minister Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) said.
All products in the five categories need be certified to be free of the chemical before being put on the market, he said.
Photo: CNA
According to Chiu, as of yesterday, a total of 40,000kg of juice and jam, 980,000 bottles of tea drinks and more than 2,000 boxes of powdered probiotic products had been recalled.
Retailers in violation of the ban will be punished in accordance with the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法), he said at a press conference held at the Government Information Office following an inter-ministerial meeting chaired by Vice Premier Sean Chen (陳?) on the latest food scare linked to DEHP in bottled beverages.
Because DEHP is not allowed to be used in food ingredients, Chen said the Environmental Protection Administration would also demand that importers and manufacturers of DEHP sign a statement that they do not sell DEHP to food producers.
To calm people’s fears about food and drink safety, the DOH has set up a hotline and established a Web site for people to consult, Chiu said, adding that people can also get advice from 23 hospitals administered by the DOH on health risks caused by consumption of DEHP-tainted foods and undergo necessary check-ups.
In Taipei yesterday, a city laboratory was swarmed by customers with various products after the city’s Department of Health started offering free tests for DEHP in food and drink products.
The service, offered at the department’s laboratory in Shipai (石牌), will be held from 10am to 4pm until Friday next week, and will be available at 12 district health service centers and the service center at Taipei City Hall from June 7 through June 10.
“I worry whether the drink products we bought are toxic or not and I no longer know what’s safe for consumption,” a customer surnamed Chen (陳) said.
In addition to items that have been found to contain DEHP, such as jelly, yogurt sports drinks and juice, customers also brought products from soy sauce to cola drinks for examination.
Lin Che-hsiung (林哲雄), a division chief at the department, said consumers can only ask for one item to be examined and should present valid ID for registration, adding that the items should be sealed and unopened.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Justice Chen Shou-huang (陳守煌) said prosecutors with the Changhua District Prosecutors Office yesterday searched 17 companies where they confiscated 127.5 barrels of emulsifiers weighing about 25kg each and 9,906.45kg of food ingredients. The office will continue to investigate the case, while the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office will coordinate prosecutors in other districts to join the crackdown in other counties and cities, Chen Shou-huang said.
The Food and Drug Administration added that as it tracks down more DEHP-tainted products, names of the items and their manufacturers will also be updated each day on the agency’s Web site.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS