Provincial zongzi hygiene inspection by the Food Administration: 29 failed

The Dragon Boat Festival is just a few days away. In order to ensure that the public can eat seasonal rice dumplings with peace of mind, the Food and Drug Administration of the Department of Health recently supervised the health bureaus of county and city governments to strengthen the inspection of the production environment, process and fillings of rice dumplings sold by stores within their jurisdiction. The inspection results were announced today, the 16th, and 29 fillings were found to be non-compliant with hygiene standards, including 15 pieces of preserved radish with excessive addition of preservatives, 12 pieces of dried shrimp with excessive sulfur dioxide as a bleaching agent, 1 piece of bean paste violated the regulations that the sweetener "cyclohexyl sulfonamide" should not be added, and 1 vegetable rice dumpling was found to contain excessive levels of E. coli.

In response to the custom of eating rice dumplings during the Dragon Boat Festival, health bureaus in various counties and cities have conducted large-scale sampling of the ingredients of commercially available rice dumplings to ensure that people can eat them safely. The picture shows staff from the New Taipei City Government’s Health Bureau going to a supermarket to collect samples of dried radish. (Photo courtesy of New Taipei City Health Bureau)

The inspection samples released by the FDA this time cover 299 businesses including snack bars, rice dumpling shops, hypermarkets, traditional markets, old streets and manufacturing factories in counties and cities across the country. Two of them failed, but they have met the regulations after re-inspection by the local government health bureau. At the same time, in order to ensure that the ingredients of zongzi fillings meet the hygiene standards, a total of 1,032 items including various sauces, lotus seeds, peanuts, dried shrimps, dried shrimps, preserved radish, dried bamboo shoots, shiitake mushrooms, chestnuts, zongzi leaves, zongzi, squid, etc. were randomly inspected. The inspection items included preservatives, E. coli, formaldehyde, sulfur dioxide, etc. As of June 14, the statistical pass rate was about 97.2%, and another 29 items failed.

Among the 29 unqualified materials, 15 items were preserved radish, accounting for the largest proportion, and the preservative benzoic acid detected in them ranged from 1.672 to 4.404 g/kg, exceeding the hygiene standard (1.0 g/kg); the second was dried shrimp 12 items, and the bleaching agent sulfur dioxide was detected in ranges from 0.23 to 1.06 g/kg, exceeding the hygiene standard (0.1 g/kg); the non-spicy bean paste of Ruifang United Society in New Taipei City was found to contain cyclohexylsulfonamide, which increases the sweetness of food, in violation of regulations that prohibit detection; the vegetable rice dumplings sold by the Kaohsiung store "Beigang Meat Rice Dumpling Bowl Cake" exceeded the standard for E. coli. For more detailed information, please visit the Department of Health website at http://www.doh.gov.tw/CHT2006/DM/DM2 p01.aspx?class no=25&level no=1&doc no=84980.

For businesses that violate the Food Sanitation Management Act, local health bureaus will require them to make improvements within a specified period of time or impose fines in accordance with the law. However, the Food and Drug Administration of the Department of Health still reminds the public that they should conduct detailed inspections when purchasing materials for making rice dumplings. For example, avoid buying dried shrimps that are abnormally red in appearance; rice dumpling leaves should have a light grassy smell but not pungent; avoid buying bulk products of unknown origin, and instead choose pickled and marinated foods such as dried radishes that are refrigerated at low temperatures or well-packaged and not moldy or rotten.