Taipei City food inspection found plasticizers and probiotics exceeded the limit by 159 times

The Taipei City Health Bureau announced the results of random inspections of plasticizers in commercially available foods on the 26th. Among 322 products, 10 were found to contain excessive amounts of plasticizers. One of them was a probiotic that contained a plasticizer DEHP that exceeded the standard by 159 times, and it evaded the Health Bureau's inspection and was fined NT$30,000.

The Taipei City Health Bureau announced the results of random inspections of plasticizers in commercially available foods. The probiotic in the picture exceeded the standard by 159 times. (Photo courtesy of Taipei City Health Bureau)

During the food manufacturing process, small amounts of plasticizers may be released into the food due to contact with plastic utensils, pipes and packaging materials. The Department of Health, Executive Yuan, has announced "Plasticizer Index Values ​​for Enterprise Monitoring" for plasticizers such as DEHP and DINP. Based on this announcement, the Taipei City Health Bureau conducted random inspections of commercially available products from August to December last year and found that the plasticizer content of 10 products exceeded the index.

The 10 products include "Baiweikang Pure Body Fortified Five-Trillion Probiotics" from Liangchun International, "Premium Pineapple Sauce" from Shih-Hung Food, "Chengtai Mushroom Sauce" and "Chengtai Toon Sauce" from Chengtai Soy Sauce and Food Store, "Peach Juice" from Chuanjia Food, "Mushroom King Vegetarian Shacha Sauce" from Mushroom King Food, "Santa Cruz 100% Organic Lemon Juice" developed by Uni-President Life Science, "Guangming Capsules" from Huashi Life Science, "Huiyouquan Capsule Food" from Yanchen Biotech Pharmaceuticals, and "Wangzhi Bonito Oil Capsules" from Asahi Printing Co., Ltd.

The plasticizer content of probiotic powder is DEHP, which is not allowed to exceed 1ppm. However, the DEHP content of Liangchun International's "Baiweikang Pure Body Element Enhanced Five Trillion Probiotics" is as high as 159.7ppm, which is 159 times higher than the standard. The most outrageous thing is that the Health Bureau has visited the business registration address for inspection many times, but the company has not responded. The Health Bureau has imposed a fine of NT$30,000 on the company in accordance with Article 35 of the Food Sanitation Management Act, which states "refuse, hinder or evade random inspections, and cannot or is unwilling to provide the source of items that do not meet the regulations", and ordered it to propose a product recall and destruction plan.

The Taipei City Health Bureau stated that six of the illegal manufacturers originated from other counties and cities, and the cases have been transferred to the health bureaus of the counties and cities under its jurisdiction for handling. The other four businesses registered in Taipei City have all been issued notices requiring them to immediately remove and recall suspicious products, and to examine product raw materials, processing procedures, and packaging materials of final products to clarify possible sources of plasticizer contamination. At the same time, they have proposed improvement plans for the causes of contamination, and strengthened quality control sampling to ensure that the plasticizer content of products meets monitoring indicators.