The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ordered a preventive recall of a popular dietary supplement product after receiving complaints that the product can cause diarrhea or constipation due to allegedly excessive levels of aloin.
Aloin is found in aloe leaves. Consuming large amounts causes digestive discomfort, such as diarrhea and vomiting, and it has been used as a laxative.
“The administration issued the order in the middle of last month, after a consumer lodged a complaint through our healthy food non-anticipated response notification system, saying they experienced constipation after using the product,” FDA Division of Food Safety senior specialist Wang Hui-ying (王惠英) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday morning.
Wang was referring to a weight-management product called L’amour (綠膳纖), a red capsule containing green tea and aloe vera abstracts that was the first capsule to be certified as a health food in Taiwan and which claims to aid in the reduction of body fat.
It is endorsed by renowned Taiwanese TV personality Momoko Tao (陶晶瑩) and more than 600,000 bottles have reportedly been sold since it entered the market in May.
Wang made the remarks in response to a report in yesterday’s Chinese-language Apple Daily newspaper, which quoted a person surnamed Chang (張) as saying that he passed loose stool as many as six times a day during the six-day period he took L’amour.
Chang then sent the remaining capsules to a laboratory for testing in August, in which they were found to contain 20,500 parts per million (ppm) of aloin, the report said.
Two samples of the product tested by certification companies SGS Taiwan and TUV Rheinland Aimex Ltd’s Taiwanese division in October at the request of Apple Daily discovered aloin levels of about 17,000ppm — 1,700 times the level recommended by the International Aloe Science Council in products for oral consumption.
Wang said there is currently no law stipulating the maximum permissible level of aloin in food products, and manufacturers of such products are only required to print: “Not suitable for pregnant women” on the outer container.
“Nevertheless, the manufacturer of L’amour has been requested to submit documents proving that its product’s aloe vera extracts come from peeled aloe, because we have to be sure of the safety of the capsules,” Wang said.
“The sooner it complies with our request, the sooner its product would be allowed back onto shelves,” Wang added.
In response, L’amour spokesperson Lee Yi-yun (李依芸) told a separate press conference in Taipei yesterday that the aloin content of the product is “extremely low,” at 8mg per capsule, which is about the same level contained in a bottle of aloe vera juice.
“Our product absolutely does not have any safety concern,” Lee said.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS