The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday announced stricter regulations on toxic heavy metals in foods, lowering the maximum limits for lead in infant formulas and in the internal organs of livestock and poultry, while adding limits on chromium in baby food products, nuts and oil seeds, which are to take effect on Monday.
The maximum level of lead allowed in powdered infant formulas would be lowered from 0.05 parts per million (ppm) to 0.02ppm, while the limit in liquid infant formulas would fall from 0.03ppm to 0ppm.
The maximum level of lead allowed in the organs of livestock and poultry would be lowered from 0.5ppm to 0.2ppm for cattle and lamb, 0.5ppm to 0.15ppm for pork, and 0.5ppm to 0.1ppm for poultry.
Photo: CNA
A new maximum limit for chromium in powdered infant formulas and liquid formulas would be 0.02ppm.
The chromium limit for pine nuts would be 0.3ppm, and 0.2ppm for other types of nuts, while it would be 0.15ppm for rapeseed, 0.15ppm for canola, 0.5ppm for flaxseed and sunflower seeds, and 0.1ppm for other types of oil seeds (such as sesame).
FDA Deputy Director-General Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said that all products sold in the market must meet the new standards, not only the ones manufactured from Monday.
The new limits were set after referencing standards in other countries as well as reviewing risk assessment data, Lin said, adding that the draft amendment to the Sanitation Standard for Contaminants and Toxins in Food (食品中污染物質及毒素衛生標準) had been announced on March 28.
The limits in baby foods need to be stricter as exposure to heavy metals can be especially harmful to infants, posing risks of developing neurological and developmental impairments, which could have life-long effects, he said.
As Taiwanese often eat nuts, oil seeds, and the internal organs of livestock and poultry, limits were tightened or added, he said.
The limits would apply to border inspections, and the agency would work with local health departments to review them during routine market inspections, he said.
Imported food items that fail border inspections would be returned or destroyed, and companies that fail inspections but do not improve within a given time period could be fined NT$30,000 to NT$3 million (US$921.55 and US$92,155), the FDA said.
Regarding chocolate — which was included in the March draft, but not in the final version — Lin said that during the 60-day public comment period, the agency received an opinion from an expert saying that the Codex Alimentarius has a more comprehensive standard for regulating heavy metal in chocolate.
The FDA is gathering opinions and drafting more comprehensive standards for chocolate, which would be announced in two or three months, and a final version could go into effect in January next year, he said.
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