A Taichung food distributor has reportedly been selling glutinous rice balls (tangyuan, 湯圓) containing industrial dyes.
Taichung City Health Bureau staff along with the local prosecutors’ office investigated the local food distributor and uncovered two unmarked containers of dark-colored powder, the bureau said.
A worker at the premises surnamed Chang (張) allegedly confessed to using industrial dyes instead of food colorings in making the tangyuan, the bureau said.
Photo: Su Meng-chuan, Taipei Times
Chang reportedly told investigators that the tangyuan containing the toxic dyes were mostly sold in the traditional markets in the city’s Fengyuan District (豐原).
Under the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), the distributor could face up to seven years imprisonment and a fine of up to NT$80 million (US$2.5 million), prosecutors said.
The bureau said it ordered inspections last month ahead of the winter solstice — which this year is tomorrow — when people typically eat tangyuan, adding that investigators made random visits to several vendors and ran food safety tests.
The results of tests became available earlier this month and Rhodamine B was discovered in the samples taken from one vendor who sells about 18kg of tangyuan per week, the bureau said.
The bureau contacted the prosecutors’ office and a team made up of staff from the bureau, the prosecutors’ office and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) went to inspect the vendor’s premises yesterday, arriving to find Chang in the process of making tangyuan, the bureau said.
The distributor had increased production of tangyuan to between 60kg and 120kg per day, the majority of which was to be sold in Fengyuan’s traditional food and vegetable market, the bureau said.
The company reportedly told investigators that it had been using industrial dyes for the past 10 years because they gave a more vibrant and longer-lasting color.
The bureau said the distributor claimed to have stopped using the dyes since an inspection last month and is now using food coloring.
However, the inspection showed that industrial dyes were in the tangyuan and noodle dough being made yesterday.
Such dyes can cause lung, throat, nose and stomach problems if consumed in sufficient quantity, the bureau said.
Consumers should be cautious when buying food products with unnaturally bright colors, it said.
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