Some doctors have expressed concern over a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plan to ease the restrictions on the amount of phosphate allowed in food that is to take effect after the Lunar New Year holidays.
This year’s Lunar New Year holiday runs from Jan. 27 through Feb. 1.
Increased phosphate content in food severely affects the kidneys, and could affect the health of people with kidney disease, doctors said.
Phosphates are commonly added to food to bind water to protein, prevent agglomeration of food powders and as emulsifiers, thickening agents and leavening agents in baked goods.
Current regulations limit phosphate content to 3g per kilogram of food product, but the proposed changes would increase the limit to 44g per kilogram in products such as chewing gum, and allow phosphate content in bread and cookies of 9.3g per kilogram of product.
While phosphate is important for healthy teeth and bones, as well as for metabolic balance, the daily intake of phosphate for an average adult should not exceed 1g, the doctors said.
Food-phosphate level regulations represent the second wave of changes to food standards, and further changes would take public concerns into account, FDA official Kao Yi-ting (高怡婷) said.
The FDA bases its regulations on recommendations from the international Codex Alimentarius Commission, Kao said, adding that it aims to be in line with international standards.
Most people are not even aware that they should be conscious of their phosphate intake, Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital nephrologist Yen Tzung-hai (顏宗海) said, adding that it is not uncommon for people to exceed the recommended daily limit in just one meal.
People with kidney disease who consume too much phosphate risk an electrolyte disturbance known as hyperphosphatemia, Yen said, adding that this can develop into hyperactivity in the thyroid gland or pathological changes in the kidneys.
The average person absorbs 10 to 30 percent of the organic phosphate which occurs naturally in whole foods, but 100 percent of the non-organic phosphates added to processed foods, Yen said.
A healthy kidney can metabolize phosphate, but people with kidney disease must be wary of their phosphate consumption, National Taiwan University Hospital nephrologist Chiang Chih-kang (姜志剛) said.
Under the proposed changes, packaged bread could contain three times as much phosphate as current regulations allow, Chiang said.
“The proposed changes would put the FDA in line with international standards, helping to facilitate trade, but the effects of phosphate on the body are not well known in Taiwan,” Chiang said, adding that any easing of restrictions should be followed up with a public education scheme.
In 2014, ministry data showed that 3,219 out of every 1 million Taiwanese underwent kidney dialysis, the highest proportion of any nation worldwide.
“Being in line with international standards is a good thing, but we must also look at local health statistics to see what regulations are suitable for us,” Yen said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,