The Consumers’ Foundation yesterday warned consumers to be careful when purchasing food products containing the fungus anka, as some can be highly toxic.
The foundation in November inspected anka food products sold at various outlets including supermarkets, small convenience stores and pharmaceutical chains in Taipei City and County. The sampled products ranged from anka sauces to biscuits and capsules.
Anka is a strain of mold called Monascus anka and is traditionally added to steamed rice that is left to ferment. After it is dried, the end product, commonly known as anka or “red rice,” has been popularly used as a spice to give sweetness and aroma to foods, as well as to add a red color.
PHOTO: CNA
Many people add anka to foods because ancient Chinese medicinal texts and some recent research studies have shown that anka has many health benefits, which include aiding digestion, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol, preventing Alzheimer’s disease and relieving menstrual pain.
A variety of products containing anka are readily available on the market, from biscuits to wine and sausages.
However, if the manufacturing environment is not clean or the fermentation process is flawed, the end product may contain citrinin, a substance that, if consumed in large amounts, can be toxic to humans and even cause cancer or kidney failure, foundation secretary-general Huang Yu-sheng (黃鈺生) said.
The foundation inspected 16 types of anka products and found that a type of anka capsule contained citrinin at amounts greater than 2 parts per million, which violates Department of Health standards.
Another capsule also violated regulations as it did not correctly state the amount of artificial coloring contained in the capsule.
Huang said it has provided authorities with the test results and that if manufacturers do not promptly improve their products, they could be fined between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000 and have their license revoked in accordance with the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法).
Although other products passed the foundation’s lab tests, the foundation advised people who use anka as flavoring in foods to avoid adding too much, as they could accidentally consume more sodium than is healthy for the body. The foundation also advised pregnant women to avoid consuming anka products before consulting a doctor and that all anka sauces should be kept in the refrigerator after being opened.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching