Society

Growing health concerns after latest food scare

By Wang Yan and Zheng Xin (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-13 09:34

Vigilance elsewhere

In Vietnam, the Food Sanitary Safety Administration, under the Vietnamese Ministry of Health, has been cooperating with Taiwan to test samples of goods in the market and to determine which companies would likely trade DEHP-tainted products.

Special teams have been established nationwide to inspect companies importing, producing and distributing products that might contain DEHP.

Vietnamese officials raided a company that imported Taiwanese food items contaminated with DEHP on June 2, according to VOH, the official radio of Ho Chi Minh City.

The company, New Choice Foods Co., was an overseas distributor of jellies and other foods produced by Taiwan's Triko Foods Co Ltd, which was found to have used DEHP in its products.

The food safety administration will expand its inspection of products that have used chemical substances from Taiwan, the Ministry of Health said.

In the Philippines, the Food and Drug Administration has been checking whether some Taiwanese products that might contain DEHP have been imported.

In addition, a team named AlerToxic Patrollers has been working in Manila's Chinatown since May 31, urging shop owners to stop selling Taiwanese products that have not been declared safe.

"We have come here today with an urgent plea to all importers, distributors and vendors of high-risk beverage, food and medicinal goods from Taiwan to temporarily stop from selling such products until consumer safety from DEHP is totally guaranteed," Aileen Lucero, chemical safety campaigner for the patrollers, told ABS-CBN News.com.

In the United States, some Taiwanese beverage chain stores in California immediately stopped selling items considered likely to be contaminated with DEHP.

Dahua Supermarket, a Taiwan-based Chinese supermarket chain, said it thoroughly inspected all its food and beverages from Taiwan and allowed customers to return the items.

"We have only found two DEHP-tainted beverages so far, and they are not hot products at all," Cao Qizheng, the spokeswoman in Southern California, told CCTV. "The United States is very strict about imports, and most of the products listed could not be found here in the States."