Beginning on Tuesday five major categories of food and beverages, including sports drinks, must prove that they are free of six designated chemicals, the Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday.
Amid a nationwide scare over food and drinks contaminated by the chemical di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, or DEHP, Department of Health Minister Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) announced that Tuesday has been set as “D-day” to end the practice of adding any of the six specified chemicals to clouding agents.
“If clouding agents are used in a product in the five foodstuff categories — sports drinks, juice, teas, fruit jam or syrups, tablets or powders — they must provide safety certificates to prove that they are free of the six plasticizers. If they fail to do so, the products will be banned,” Chiu said.
Photo: Shen Chi-chang, Taipei Times
A clouding agent is a legal food additive commonly used in products such as fruit jelly, yogurt powder mix, juice and other drinks to keep the emulsions evenly dispersed and to make the products more visually appealing to customers.
Manufacturers found producing or selling clouding agents that contain any of the six chemicals, including DEHP, will be heavily penalized, with the fines based on the “one case, one penalty” principle, Chiu said.
Food and beverage companies should always be careful with their selection of raw materials and pleading ignorance is no excuse, he added.
“These companies should shoulder their social responsibility and make the public interest their primary concern,” he said, adding that “they might suffer some economic losses, but they would regain the public’s trust.”
Food and Drug Administration Director-General Kang Jaw-jou (康照洲) said the six chemicals his agency is targeting are DEHP, DINP, DNOP, DIDP, DBP and BBP.
He urged distributors to recall all food and beverages that contain clouding agents and to return them to store shelves only after safety certificates had been provided.
At a separate setting yesterday, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said free product testing for DEHP at the city’s 12 district health service centers would not be limited to Taipei residents and he promised to provide the service to all of the nation’s consumers.
Hau promised to extend the service after a visit to the health department’s laboratory in Shipai (石牌), which has received more than 300 products from worried customers since it started offering free testing on Thursday.
“Our top priority is to assuage people’s fears about food and beverage products, and we urged manufactures and importers to take the initiative to inform consumers about any items that are contaminated with DEHP,” he said.
The testing service, which is available from 10am to 4pm until Friday at Taipei’s 12 district health service centers and will also be available at Taipei City Hall service center from June 7 to 10, was originally limited to Taipei residents.
A customer surnamed Huang from Taoyuan County visited the department’s lab yesterday carrying a box of a Lactobacillus product that his two-year-old child had been eating for more than a year.
“I think every local government should offer such a service for local residents so we don’t have to come all the way to Taipei,” he said.
Chiu Chi-sheng (邱志昇), director of the laboratory, said it took about four hours to process an item and the lab is equipped to handle about 50 products a day.
He said the laboratory would seek support from medical schools and Taipei City Hospital to handle the heavy workload.
Chiu said consumers could only ask for one item to be examined and should present valid ID for registration. The lab only accepts items in certain categories, such as sports drinks, juices, teas, syrups and jams.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat