The Ministry of Health and Welfare has modified food additive standards to increase potassium iodide concentrations in iodized salt after the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) found that 51.2 percent of Taiwanese lack sufficient iodine intake.
Amendments to the Standards for Specification, Scope, Application and Limitation of Food Additives is to require potassium iodide concentration in iodized salt to be increased from the current range of 12mg/kg to 20mg/kg, to 20mg/kg to 33mg/kg and would be enforced after six months, the HPA said.
The ministry’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said iodized salt manufacturers would face a fine of between NT$30,000 and NT$3 million (US$90,807) if they fail to meet the standards after they come into effect.
HPA Director-General Chiou Shu-ti (邱淑媞) said that a 2013 survey showed the median urinary iodine concentration of people above six years old was only 99 micrograms per liter — below the minimal concentration of 100 micrograms per liter recommended by the WHO — adding that iodine is a necessary nutrient to maintain healthy functions of the thyroid gland.
Thyroid hormone deficiency can lead to fatigue; intolerance to cold; goiter and obesity caused by slow metabolism; mental and physical developmental delay in children and teenagers; impairment in mental function, such as memory loss, in adults; hypophrenia (mental deficiency); extreme fatigue; depression and slowdown in mental responses, the HPA said.
Long-term iodine deficiency can also cause disruptions in the menstrual cycle and infertility in women, or cause even more serious consequences in pregnant women, such as miscarriage, still birth and congenital abnormalities, it added.
As for concerns about whether people would consume excessive levels of iodine after the policy is enforced, the HPA said if an individual consumes 6g of salt per day — the maximum daily consumption recommend by the administration — the person would be consuming an iodine supplement of about 120 to 198mg, much lower than the amount of iodine that would be taken by consuming a kelp knot, so the risks of iodine over-consumption from salt is low.
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