Fri, May 14, 2010 page2

• Companies mislabel milk products, watchdog says

  WARNING The Consumers’ Foundation says one out of every six plastic kitchen gloves sold locally contains too much plasticizer, a potential hazard for pregnant women

  • By Shelley Huang / Staff Reporter
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  The Consumer Protection Commission yesterday released a list of preserved milk products currently on sale that have not been properly labeled, saying the error could result in them being confused for fresh milk.

  The commission recently conducted inspections on preserved milk products, also known as ultra- high temperature (UHT) processed milk, and found that 11 types manufactured by three well-known producers had been labeled in a way that could mislead shoppers.

  Various preserved, flavored and high-calcium milk products processed by Kuang Chuan Dairy Co (光泉牛乳), Fresh Delight Taiwan (福樂鮮乳) and Taiwan Provincial Farmers’ Association (台農乳品) carried no label identifying them as preserved milk on the front of their packaging, commission section chief Wu Cheng-hsueh (吳政學) said.

  

  A representative of the Consumers’ Foundation holds up cartons of milk during a presentation in Taipei yesterday calling on producers to label flavored milk and long-life milk products more clearly.

  PHOTO: CNA

  The consumer ombudsman began its investigation after receiving a complaint from a confused consumer.

  “Many producers indicate the percentage of fresh milk contained and include a list of ingredients in small print on the side of the package, but they do not write ‘flavored milk’ or ‘preserved milk’ on the front of the package ... Consumers may be misled into thinking a products is pure, fresh milk because it is refrigerated,” Wu said.

  The most important difference between fresh and preserved milk is that bacteria is killed during the UHT treatment process, so preserved milk typically has a shelf life of about six months, while fresh milk lasts only about 14 days before it spoils. Fresh milk and preserved milk have a similar nutritious value, but fresh milk is typically higher priced.

  Confronted with this revelation, producers informed the commission that as there was no difference in the quality of the milk it did not constitute an attempt to mislead consumers.

  They did, however, promise to upgrade their labeling within the next few months.

  The Department of Health’s Food and Drug Administration yesterday urged producers to clearly distinguish between fresh and preserved milk on labeling and packaging or face fines of up to NT$150,000 for violation of the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法).

  In related news, the Consumers’ Foundation yesterday said that one out of every six plastic kitchen gloves sold in Taiwan contains too much plasticizer, which can cause health problems, especially for pregnant women.

  The consumer rights watchdog recently conducted inspections on 12 types of widely available kitchen glove and found that two products, manufactured by Haw-ping Corp (豪品國際實業) and RT-Mart (大潤發), contained over 0.1 percent of phthalate plasticizer, the maximum allowed under Chinese National Standard 3478 for plastic shoes. The foundation used that standard as a proxy for kitchen gloves because there is currently no standard for gloves in Taiwan.

  Exposure to phthalate plasticizer, also known as environmental hormones, can disrupt a person’s endocrine system causing a higher risk of breast cancer or endometrial cancer (cancer of the lining of the uterus), Consumers’ Foundation committee member and dermatologist Chan Heng-­leong (曾興隆) said.

  Responding to the foundation’s claims, Haw-ping and RT-Mart said their products did not pose a health risk and were in accordance with product safety standards.
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