Using the principle that one should avoid using food additives when they are not necessary, the 77-year-old I-Mei Foods Co has managed to weather the plasticizer food scare, because the company conducts its own food safety screening, I-Mei director Tsai Yung-fu (蔡永富) said in an interview.
I-Mei food products are part of the collective memory of Taiwanese and the company has more than 1,500 products, Tsai said, adding that to properly check food safety for its many products and those it produces for McDonald’s, Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), I-Mei had acquired the necessary equipment.
INVESTMENT
Tsai said that six years ago, I-Mei spent more than NT$60 million (US$2 million) on a food safety research lab in Taoyuan, which is capable of performing more than 150 types of examinations, including determining differences in physical and chemical properties, and detecting heavy metals, micro-organisms, residual pesticides and veterinary medicine.
The lab also includes a liquid and gas chromatographer, a gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS), an atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) and other devices.
The company spent tens of millions of New Taiwan dollars to purchase a liquid chromatography--tandem mass spectrometer (LC-MSMS), which can examine at the particle level such things as lean-meat essence, melamine, preservatives or even di(2--ethylhexyl) phthalate, or DEHP, and diisononyl phthalate, or DINP — the main culprits in the ongoing food scare.
Gas/liquid chromatography is a method of separating and analyzing compounds that can be vaporized without decomposition, while mass spectrometry charges particles to determine the elemental composition of a sample or molecule and elucidate the chemical structures of molecules, such as peptides and other chemical compounds within masses of particles.
AAS is the determination of chemical elements employing the absorption of optical radiation (light) by free atoms in the gaseous state.
The LC-MSMS employs the same procedure as the GC-MS, but repeats the mass spectrometry process several times and seeks to find the contaminant through fragmentation of particles and running the particles through mass detectors.
Liao Yi-chen (廖怡禎), who heads I-Mei’s research lab, said the plasticizer-induced food scare caught everybody by surprise because plasticizers were not usually within the parameters of food safety control and that with the various types of substances that go into a product, if the importer was not honest, it was really difficult for the food maker to find out.
PUBLIC SERVICE
Because its Taoyuan lab is one of only 21 facilities in Taiwan capable of detecting plasticizers, the Taoyuan County Government has asked I-Mei’s lab to examine food for DEHP/DINP contamination for residents of Taoyuan — for free.
Between 30 percent and 40 percent of the 60 items sent to I-Mei for examination were DEHP/DINP positive, Liao said.
With its success in ensuring the safety of its products, I-Mei’s market performance during the food scare has actually improved.
PRICE MATCHES QUALITY
I-Mei said its 100 percent pure fruit juice uses Taiwanese tangerines and grapes direct from the press and is not restored from concentrate, which makes its juice 10 percent more expensive than other juice brands on the market and is one of the reasons why many five-star hotels and food and beverage businesses do not buy from I-Mei.
However, since the plasticizer scare emerged, I-Mei said that many five-star hotels and food and beverage stores have contacted them and placed orders, adding that many consumers on the retailing end of the business chain have also asked where they could buy I-Mei products such as juice, soy milk and fresh milk.
SAFETY PAYS OFF
This has resulted in a 10 percent increase in sales for I-Mei’s refrigerated goods, Tsai said, adding that sales were still growing.
TRANSLATED BY JAKE CHUNG, STAFF WRITER
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