Announce Department：General Affairs Department
June 1st, 2011
Reported by Journalist Li, C. W.
The toxicity plasticizer termination D-Day started massively from yesterday. Kinmen county Health Bureau Chief, and relevant officers and Consumer Protection Commissioner Mr. Chen conduct food ingredient inspection in regional distributors, hypermarket to insure the five major categories of OTC food in retailing markets meeting legal requirements.
According to the “Enforcement Rules for Plasticizer-Polluted Food” promulgated by Dept. of Health on May 28th, for the products being classified one of five major food categories, including “Sports Drinks”, “Fruit Juice”, “Tea Drinks”, “Fruit Jam, Fruit Pulp or Fruit Jelly”, and “Capsule or Tablet or Powdered Package”, compulsory comprehensive product withdrawal must be conduct in case of detection of plasticizer (DEHP) or cloudy agent pollution. For products containing cloudy agent, it is necessary to submit certificates to the Dept. of Health validating the suppliers and product distributors are free of DEHP pollution (attachment with certificate provision sources) or the safety certificate issued from “The Food Certified Food Ingredient DEHP Inspection Labs Publicized by Food and Drug Agency of Dept. of Health”.
Kinmen County Health Bureau has already delegated staffs to all major sales markets to assist in withdrawal of completely packaged and labeled products with containment of plasticizers and cloudy agents (including DEHP, DINP) and instructed suppliers to complete market withdrawal immediately. As of May 31st, Kinmen government has already enforced product withdrawal of 15,384 bottles of sports drinks of YES Enterprise, 10,656 bottles Sports Drinks of President Enterprise and 4,320 bottles of Sunkist Granulated Lemon Fruit Juice. The polluted products of Te-Kong Bio-Tech (including lemon enzyme powder, intestine cleansing enzyme drinks packets) have never been sold in Kinmen local markets.
So far County Health Bureau has inspected 12 times on regional hypermarkets, 26 times on local convenience stores, 3 times on manufacturers and 12 times on distributors and 46 times on cold drinks shops.
County Health Bureau has started inspection on drinks ingredient of local cold drink ships from May 27th (including concentrated fruit juice, fruit jams, fruit concentrate, fruit pulp and yogurt powder) and established a data base for all relevant suppliers’ and manufacturers’ addresses. As of May 31st, there has already conducted inspection 2t times on relevant manufacturers and suppliers. There has not yet detected any products containment with DEHP so far.
A Kinmen regional distributor selling polluted food sauce which are supplied from a Taiwan manufacturer have all been withdrawal from the market and delivered back to Taiwan supplier “amounting to 5 bottles).
Health Bureau Chief emphasizes that a safety inspection certificate shall be provided for the product being classified as one of the major category. Otherwise it is prohibited to make sales. Heavy punishment will apply on the violation. All food suppliers and distributor shall insure OTC product free of plasticizer pollution and shall submit security inspection certificates for products being classified as one of the 5 major categories. Continuous sales of polluted without market withdrawal will be punished according to Article 33 of Food Health Management and Requirement Enforcement Rules. Immediate compulsory product withdrawal shall apply on the food being classified as one of the 5 major categories in case of failure of submitting any security inspection certificate. Repetitive detection of failure of product shall be subject to punishment as stipulated in Article 33 or Article 35 or Food Management Enforcement Rules.
In case of intending to submit suspiciously plasticizer pollution products to conduct inspection, the inquiry information can be searched at the website of “DEHP-Polluted Cloudy Agents Zeon” and “Certified Inspection Lab for Authentication of DEHP Ingredient of Food” at: http://www.fda.gov.tw/ of Food & Drug Management Agency. Currently, there are 18 certified food inspection labs competent of making such an inspection. Kinmen County Health Bureau is rushing to procurement inspection instruments and can provide inspection service for local residents upon completing procurement of such inspection instruments.
Kinmen County Health Bureau the amount of products polluted by Plasticizers could be 520 in total so far. The relevant information is available at the website of Food and Drug Administration, Executive Yuan: http://www.fda.gov.tw/; or Food and Drug Information For Consumer website: http://consumer.fda.gov.tw/ where there is a “Cloudy Agent Pollution Information Zone”. Dept. of Health, Executive Yuan has already provided 20 service phones lines: 02-2787-8200 for public inquiry.
County Health Bureau urges all county residents to help detect suspiciously polluted products. Be sure to validate the product supplier’s inspection certificate. If any suspicion, please inform the local Health Institute immediately.