In a bid to ease public concerns over chemical-tainted food products, health officials said yesterday they will place government-certified safety labels on Taipei’s vending machines once the contents have been confirmed safe.
Over the next five days, the labels will be affixed to whichever of the city’s 7,500 vending machines are deemed to hold safe products, Taipei City Department of Health officials said.
Health officials said they have already instructed vending machine distributors to provide them with detailed lists of the products sold in their machines, as well as food inspection results and the identification numbers and locations of their machines.
The posting will be completed within five days, according to Chiang Yu-mei (姜郁美), chief secretary of the department.
Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, or DEHP, and diisononyl phthalate, or DINP, were found last week to have been added to a commonly used clouding agent by Yu Shen Chemical Co and Pin Han Perfumery Co respectively, resulting in a massive recall of products from store shelves.
Manufacturers of five types of food and beverages that commonly use clouding agent, including sports drinks, tea drinks, juices, fruit jams, syrups, jellies and dietary supplements in capsule, tablet or powdered form are now required to submit certification proving their products are free of illegal chemicals before they can be sold.
The safety labels will be valid for three months, after which a reinspection will be conducted and new labels issued, officials said.
In other developments, at least 12 more juice products purchased from Ging Kuo Wang, a major juice producer that used questionable clouding agents from Yu Shen Chemical Co, were found in Taipei yesterday. The city’s health department fined one company NT$150,000 for avoiding inspections.
The company, Creation Food Co, informed the department yesterday it was commissioned to sell clouding agents from Ging Kuo Wang to restaurants and drink shops.
The company did not produce any food or drink products using the problematic clouding agents. However, it sold 12 kinds of juice from Ging Kuo Wang to restaurants and shops and failed to inform the department by Monday when Ging Kuo Wang was found using questionable clouding agents.
Chiang said the department has confiscated 5,829 boxes of products that were contaminated with DEHP since a nationwide inspection of the five categories of food and beverages was launched on Tuesday.
The department yesterday also fined Chang Gung Biotechnology Corp NT$60,000 for continuing to sell two problematic products after the products tested positive for DEHP on Tuesday.
“We want to remind all manufacturers and shops to inform us if they use any problematic products. Heavy fines and punishments will be given if they fail to notify us,” she said.
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