Legislators urge tougher penalties for tainted food

Two of the 21 companies that produce clouding agents have been caught using plasticizers illegally in a nationwide raid. Food manufacturers buying from Yu Sheng Chemical Co. and Pin Han Perfumery Co. have been notified, and their products have been pulled off store shelves across the country.

Manufacturers of five foodstuff categories — sports drink, juices, tea drinks, fruit jam or syrups, tablets or powders — are now required to provide certification that their products are plasticizer-free before they can be sold.

Retailers that sell the five categories of products without obtaining this safety certification will face a fine up to NT$150,000 starting tomorrow — the day set by the health minister as the “D-day” for ending the practice of adding toxic chemicals to clouding agents.

Product Tests

Before D-day, producers that use clouding agent are urged to either present a list of their food suppliers, or test results from certified laboratories proving their products are free of six kinds of plasticizers — DEHP, DINP, DNOP, DIDP, DBP and BBP.

Food and beverage suppliers who were eager to put their products back on store shelves said that they were unable to get test certificates in time because they have to wait around seven days for the test reports.

Some others complained that they were still waiting for their turns because of inadequate testing facilities at the laboratories designated by the DOH, which already more than doubled the appointed labs to 15 from six.

The labs said their staff already canceled leaves for the weekend in order to handle the sharply increased workload.

Hsiao said that testing is costly and the same goal can be achieved through a simpler and more convenient approach.

“If manufacturers can prove that they do not buy from Yu Sheng Chemical Co. and Pin Han Perfumery Co. and sign a non-liability form, they can still sell their products,” Hsiao said.

The DOH will add more qualified labs by asking universities and other academic research institutions to help share the testing work, she added.

As health officials uncover the extent of the clouding agent scandal, the latest information released in the afternoon yesterday revealed that two chemical materials companies were found to have produced clouding agent with plasticizers.

A total of 506 categories of food and beverage products from 206 manufacturers are affected, according to DOH's Food and Drug Administration.

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