Many flour products contain azodicarbonamide (ADA) and benzoyl peroxide (BPO) — which are legal additives in Taiwan — and the chemicals can have adverse effects in some people, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said, adding that it will evaluate whether regulations should be amended.
A report by the Chinese-language Apple Daily newspaper yesterday said that the color and texture of chewy white bread and white noodles can be induced by flour containing BPO and ADA, which were approved in food production more than 20 years ago.
Commenting on the report, Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital nephrologist Yen Tzung-hai (顏宗海) said that “BPO is a flour bleaching agent and ADA is a quality improvement agent that is used as a foaming agent to make dough rise faster.”
ADA is also used in yoga mats and shoe soles to increase elasticity, and the chemical is banned as a food additive in Europe and Australia, Yen said, adding that the use of BPO as a food additive is banned in Europe and China.
BPO breaks down to benzoic acid and oxygen, Yen said, adding that people with weak liver function might have difficulty metabolizing benzoic acid, children who are exposed to benzoic acid might have higher risks of developing attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, and BPO can trigger allergic reactions or asthma in some people.
Taiwan allows the use of ADA in food products at levels below 45 parts per million (ppm) and BPO at levels below 60ppm, but the chemicals must be listed on product labels.
“Food companies that do not reveal [the use of BPO or ADA] on their labels may face a fine between NT$40,000 and NT$4 million [US$1,247 and US$124,727],” FDA Division of Food Safety official Hsu Chao-kai (許朝凱) said.
“To decide whether the chemicals should be removed from the list of food additives or whether regulations need to be amended to tighten standards, [the agency] will need to conduct more evaluations,” Hsu said.
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:
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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