"Health food" could do just the opposite of what they purportedly do, a non-governmental organization (NGO) said as it petitioned legislators to amend regulations on health foods yesterday.
The Health Food Control Act (
Only a food product that has been certified as health food can bear a health food emblem.
Loopholes
But the John Tung Foundation, an NGO that promotes healthy lifestyles, has found loopholes in the law.
"This [drink] may bear a health food emblem, but it also has a lot of additives," Chen Shu-li (陳淑麗), a volunteer worker at the foundation, said, holding a bottle of carbonated drink that had been certified as a health food product.
The drink, Chen said, contains oligosaccharide that can help to improve one's health.
However, it also contains other ingredients found in carbonated drinks that may be harmful, Chen said.
Jacob Jou (
"Although it contains Bifidus longum, it contains [the equivalent of] four sugar cubes," Jou said.
The small bottle only holds 100ml of Bifidus longum, which is believed to help fight E. coli bacteria in humans.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英), who received representatives from the NGO, agreed that the law had its loopholes.
"The Health Food Control Act ... certainly doesn't examine a food product as a whole when evaluating its impact on human health," Huang said.
Amendments
To avoid unscrupulous food producers from taking advantage of such loopholes in future, the foundation requested that the act be amended.
"We're looking for stricter regulations on health food," Jou said.
"We'd like to see the term `health food' redefined and we also want amendments to the law so that it requires more detailed nutritional facts on food and beverage product labels bearing the health food emblem," he said.
Although existing laws require nutritional facts labeling on certain food products, many items that can be harmful -- such as items with a high sugar content -- are not subjected to this requirement, Jou said.
Huang promised to push for amendments to the act during the new legislative session.
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