A magazine yesterday alleged that edible oil and sauce packs from instant noodles products from six companies contained residual traces of heavy metals.
The Chinese-language Business Today magazine said it tested the oil packs following comments made by edible oil businesspeople that “the oil packs in instant noodles have even greater problems” amid the recent edible oil scandal.
At the end of last month, the magazine purchased instant noodles from supermarkets and hypermarkets around Taipei and sent the oil packs they contained to SGS Taiwan for laboratory testing.
Of the seven products sent for testing, the sauce packs from a chicken noodle soup and a beef noodle soup product made by Vedan contained minute traces of copper, a sauce pack from the Wu Mu brand contained traces of arsenic and copper, and a spicy beef noodle product’s sauce pack from Master Kong, a sauce pack from a Shin Ramyun product, and a pickled cabbage and beef noodle soup product’s sauce pack from Uni President’s were found to contain traces of arsenic, copper and lead.
A rice noodle product from A-she brand had also been found to contain the aforementioned heavy metals and also traces of mercury, the magazine said.
The report also included an interview with the Consumers’ Foundation’s editor committee, which said that though it was inevitable that residues of the more toxic heavy metals would appear in foodstuffs, once the amount of residues exceeded the human body’s level of tolerance they would disrupt the normal biological functions.
An unnamed committee member interviewed by the magazine also said that as there were no standards for heavy metal residues in sauce packs for instant noodles in the country, it was impossible to tell whether or not the residual amounts in the sauce packs exceeded human tolerance levels.
In response, the brands named in the report said that the residues of heavy metals found in the sauces packs were common in the environment and in other foodstuffs, adding that as the sauces were made from plants, fruit and natural oils, the residual amounts were well within legal standards and there was no reason for consumers to be concerned about the report.
The brands also said that as the government had not set a legal limit on the levels of trace metals in the products, the discovery of the metals had no legal ramifications.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS