The government plans to set a maximum legal limit on plasticizer chemicals contained in various types of foodstuffs and products found with plasticizers exceeding the legal limit will be immediately taken off shelves, health officials told this year’s National Food Safety Conference yesterday.
The two-day conference on food safety and regulations began yesterday with health officials, including Department of Health (DOH) officials, including DOH Minister Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達), vowing to crack down on the “unscrupulous” practice of adding plasticizers to food additives.
The food scare that has hit the nation in the past month has turned the spotlight on food, beverages and other food products, including jams, supplements, sports drinks that contain chemicals such as di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, or DEHP, and diisononyl phthalate, or DINP.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Tests have confirmed that DEHP and DINP have been used as a substitute for more expensive ingredients in a common food additive known as clouding agent.
Department officials yesterday presented the government’s plans for handling plasticizer contamination.
“In a recent meeting with experts, we reached an initial consensus of referencing EU guidelines on establishing a tolerable daily intake level of plasticizers,” Chiu said.
Food and Drug Administration Director-General Kang Jaw-jou (康照洲) said that within a year, the DOH would complete an investigation into the background levels of plasticizer chemicals in foodstuffs to help differentiate between instances where plasticizer was intentionally added to foodstuffs or was the result of environmental contamination, which could be minimized through improvements in the manufacturing, packaging and selling processes.
The DOH will also prioritize setting a maximum legal limit on plasticizers in packaged beverages and baby foods.
Kang said those types were a top priority for standardizing legal plasticizer limits because packaged beverages, such as water, are usually consumed in large quantities in a short period of time.
Infants are at especially high risk from overconsumption of plasticizers, because contamination could cause irreparable harm to their growth and development, Kang said.
Aside from these two types of foods, other categories will also eventually have standard plasticizer limit values, while other consumer products such as plastic toys, which children often put in their mouth, would also have legal limits on plasticizers, officials said.
Other potential sources of exposure to plasticizers include using plastic shopping bags, covering foods with saran wrap while microwaving or using fragranced cosmetic products that contain plasticizers as fixative agents to keep the smell, Kang said.
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