Carefully check the labels of Halloween candies for potential allergens when trick-or-treating on Thursday next week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday.
Warnings in Mandarin must be displayed on the outer packaging of any packaged food product that contains any of the 11 ingredients that might trigger an allergic reaction, FDA Food Safety Division Deputy Director Shiau Huei-wen (蕭惠文) told a news conference in Taipei.
The 11 ingredients are crustaceans, sesame, cow milk, goat milk, fish, mango, eggs, gluten, peanuts, nuts and soybeans, Shiau said.
Photo: CNA
If a product uses sulfite additives during production and contains sulfur dioxide residues exceeding 10mg per kilogram, it must also have an allergen label, she added.
Asked what people who cannot read Chinese should do being unable to understand labeling, FDA Deputy Director-General Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said that they should check the outer packaging of food products, as it might include labels in foreign languages or images of allergens.
Meanwhile, Anny Hou (侯沂錚), a dietitian at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, said that added sugar intake should not exceed 10 percent of a person’s total daily caloric intake.
If a child aged four to six consumes about 1,800 calories per day, then the recommended added sugar limit for them should be about 180 calories, equivalent to nine sugar cubes, she said.
Separately, Lin said that the FDA has reviewed all online shopping platforms in Taiwan and ordered them to stop selling “wax candy” products from China.
Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) previously said that “wax candy” — candies with an outer layer of wax wrapped around jam or syrup — raised food safety concerns.
She urged consumers to exercise caution before purchasing the products, as it remains uncertain whether they contain illegal additives.
Lin Chin-fu said that over the past three years, “not a single wax candy product from China has undergone customs declaration and inspection at Taiwan’s borders,” indicating that all such products in Taiwan have been imported illegally.
The FDA’s regulations do not apply to “wax candy” products purchased on foreign platforms such as Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) through parallel imports for personal use, Lin Chin-fu said.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS