The sale of iced beverages and ice products has soared amid rising temperatures across the country, but the Taipei City Government’s Department of Health urged the public to avoid 10 products that were found to be contaminated with excessive levels of Escherichia coli bacteria or to have elevated aerobic plate counts.
The department has tested 186 iced products, including 151 edible items and 35 mix ingredients since the beginning of summer.
“The presence of high levels of Escherichia coli or plate counts in 25 of the tested products were at levels exceeding the maximum permissible.
Even after being requested to make necessary improvements within a statutory period, 10 of the products still failed the second food hygiene test,” the department told a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
The iced products that failed both tests included Black Tea Slurpy (紅茶雪泥) sold by fast food chain T.K.K. Fried Chicken (頂呱呱), and convenience store chain OK-Mart’s iced latte and chocolate milk shake sold by Taipei’s Drama Cafe (朵拉瑪咖啡館).
Companies responsible for the deficient products faced a maximum fine of NT$3 million (US$95,816) in accordance with Article 17 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), the department said.
The mix ingredients were tested for residue of preservatives, artificial sweeteners and coloring agents, the department said, and just one product — tapioca balls used by Taipei-based tea beverage store Cafe de la Kapha (藍白拖手作飲料舖) — was substandard.
“The tapioca contained 0.51 grams of preservative benzoic acid per kilogram and 0.91g/kg of hexadienoic acid,” the department said, adding that all the tainted products have been removed from shelves.
The department said that while the coliform group was not the main virus by which people get food poisoning, high levels of the bacteria still suggested an unhygienic environment or utensils in manufacturing sites.
It added that excessive consumption of benzoic acid could cause stomachache and negatively affect the liver and kidneys, while hexadienoic acid was considered to be of low toxicity.
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