The Consumer Protection Committee yesterday urged the public to exercise caution when using ceramic cooking pots for Chinese herbal medicines after 90 percent failed tests.
The agency randomly tested 15 electronic herbal medicine cooking pots purchased online, as well as from electric appliance shops, pharmacies and hardware stores in New Taipei, Hsinchu and Hualien cities in October last year.
“Five of the tested products lacked some of the components detailed in their initial test reports,” consumer ombudsman Wang Teh-ming (王德明) told a press conference in Taipei.
He cited as an example the “Yi Shou ceramics Chinese medicine pot” (益壽陶瓷中藥壼), which he said did not have a ground wire attached to its plug, increasing the risk of electric shocks.
Manufacturers of the faulty products have been ordered to make the necessary improvements within a statutory period, and those who fail to comply will have their sales licenses revoked, Wang said.
In addition, eight of the products tested did not conform to labeling requirements, he said, urging consumers to carefully examine the cooking pots before purchase and to unplug them after use.
In related news, the Changhua County Public Health Bureau yesterday released the results of a random testing of fish oil supplements.
Eight out of the 10 tested products were found to contain far lower levels of EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) than advertised.
The only two products were that passed the tests were both manufactured in Taiwan, the bureau said.
Singling out Po Chih Chang Fish Oil (柏之暢魚油), which is made of ingredients imported from Germany, the bureau said that the product claimed to contain 180mg of EPA and 120mg of DHA per a 1,000mg capsule, but in reality, the fish oil contained only 30mg each of the two substances.
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