Germany yesterday announced a ban on a jelling agent, konjac, which has been used in billions of sweets for children.
Konjac, also known as konnyaku, yam flour or glucomannan, is the key material in a childhood sensation known as Mini Fruit Jellys or Mini Fruit Cups that had to be pulled from shelves all over the EU and the US in January.
Served in tiny plastic cups that imitate grown-ups' ready-to-eat meals, the Taiwanese-made sweet is sucked into the mouth to be chewed slowly. However small children were at risk of choking if they swallowed the gel too early.
German Health Minister Renate Kuenast said she had decided to extend the ban from the product to all use of konjac as an ingredient. Sources said EU officials had agreed to a request from Berlin for konjac to be banned soon throughout western Europe.
The German ban is to take effect on Wednesday.
The US Food and Drug Administration said earlier this year there had been reports of four US children's deaths from choking associated with this type of jelly candy. Food safety experts spoke of up to eight deaths in Japan.
It is estimated that one Taiwanese company sold more than 3 billion pieces of the gel snacks.
In August of last year the popular jelly candy imported from Taiwan was pulled from US shelves of hundreds of supermarkets after it was blamed for the choking deaths of two children.
At that time two US grocery store chains -- Safeway and Albertson's -- announced that Jelly Yum brand candies and Fruit Poppers and Gelly Drop candies will be removed from its 2,500 stores nationwide, and bulk-goods store Costco ordered the candies off the shelves of more than 250 stores around the world, including 10 in Asia.
The candy is linked to the deaths of a 3-year-old an a 12-year-old last year in the US. In both cases, rescue workers said they couldn't dislodge the sticky gel from the children's throats.
The gel candies are individually packed in small, soft plastic cups and are sold in bulk in plastic jars.
The brightly colored candies have become popular over the last two years among American children after the treats met with success in Asia.
Health officials have warned the sweet gel does not readily dissolve in the mouth. Some jars carry a label warning that the candies are not safe for children under age 6, while others have said they are not safe for children under age 3.
At least a dozen deaths have been tied to the candy around the world. Most have been in Asia, where the candy originated in 1995. In Japan, the candy has gotten the nickname "deadly mouthful."
The Taichung County-based Sheng Hsiang Jen Foods Co (
"Whether it was a mini-fruity gel, a piece of meat, a hot dog, or any hard candy, the result could have been the same," a company statement on the matter said last year.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS