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.
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