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Legislator urges caution when buying Chinese salt

Legislators yesterday warned that dangerous salt imported from China is on the market, urging the government to set up an institute to inspect edible salt.

"Some salt in circulation is not fit for consumption. It is made of industrial salts and cyclic salts," Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wu Ming-ming (吳明敏) told a press conference.

Wu said that originally, state-run Taiyen was the main producer of edible salt in the country.

The company's sales of edible salt had dropped by 18 percent and that of washed salts by 60 percent from 2003 to last year, he said.

"Given salt is a daily commodity, it is unreasonable that such a big reduction in the sales volume should have occurred. Only substitution of imported salt could explain it," he added.

The country opened its salt market to industrial salt, pure sodium chloride, and other salt -- all inedible salts -- on January 20, 2004, when the Statute for Salt Administration (鹽政條例) was abolished to conform with Taiwan's WTO commitments.

"Since then, some 35 to 50 percent of imported pure sodium chloride and other salts come from China, a figure that rises to about 50 percent to 70 percent if salts from China imported in the name of Thailand and Vietnam are included," Wu said.

Wu said that pure sodium chloride and other salts from China are unsafe because they lack iodine and might contain impurities and heavy metals.

"Long-term use of this kind of salt will impair brain development for babies under the age of one. Adults might suffer from thyroid enlargement," he added.

DPP legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), also present at the press conference, called on the government to set up an institute to inspect edible salt, which she said the government should have thought about when the statute was abolished.

Claiming that media reports had said China-produced salt might contain Tetrabromobisphenol A, a chemical used in industry, Tien said the substance can lead to disrupted hormonal activity.

"There are many salt products lacking adequate labeling in terms of their place of production and the ingredients they contain. Until the government is able to examine unidentified products, consumers would be better off choosing local salt," she said.
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