DOH sees better management of Chinese herbs

Food safety is one of the major issues on the agenda of the upcoming talks between Chiang Pin-kun, chairman of Taiwan’s semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), and Chen Yunlin, president of the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), when the two meet in Taipei in early November.

The issue took center stage with the exposure last month of a toxic milk power incident in China that swiftly expanded into global concern over China-produced substandard food products.

Lin Yi-hsin, chairman of the DOH Committee on Chinese Medicine and Pharmacy, said that once the two sides seal the food safety agreement, the committee will seek quality certification of all medicine herbs imported from China.

Taiwan consumes more than 10,000 tons of medicine herbs, which are used not only in traditional Chinese medical treatment, but also as culinary ingredients due to their health benefits.

While 90 percent of these herbs, in a wide variety, are imported from China, it has been difficult for the Taiwanese health authorities to control the quality because there has been no clear channel between the two sides for the management of herbal medicine, Lin admitted.

The quality of China-produced medicine herbs on the Taiwan market at present is mixed, the official said, adding that quite often such imports are found to contain toxic substances like aflatoxin and heavy metals.

However, the problem will be addressed if the two sides sign the agreement on food safety, Lin said, explaining that Chinese medicine herbs are categorized as food products.

Lin noted that the DOH committee has been making efforts over the past years to promote the management of Chinese medicine ingredients. It recently completed work on the proper labeling of these products, and is currently working to set standards on the permissible levels of toxic substances in medicine herbs, he said.

The committee will later concentrate on ensuring the safety of medicine herb sources in China, Lin added.

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