Tainted Taiwan drinks spread to mainland
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The DEHP contamination scandal in Taiwan has spread across the Straits and started to affect the mainland market, as about 500-600 cases of tainted asparagus juice produced by Uni-President of Taiwan had been imported to the Chinese mainland.
The asparagus juice products were imported by small-sized merchants in Fujian province and were only sold in Xiamen and Guangdong's Dongguan, where Taiwan businessmen mainly live, according to Uni-President. The products have not been distributed to other parts of the mainland, said Yang Shou-cheng, mainland spokesman for the Taiwan beverage producer.
Yang also said vendors had been informed of the contamination on May 28 and told to stop selling the product.
The tainted products were produced in Taiwan, and the products made by Uni-President on the mainland exclusively use local ingredients, therefore are not contaminated, said Yang.
Last week, China's top quality watchdog announced that DEHP-contaminated cases of Yes Sports Drink from Taiwan had entered Shanghai in March. The products have since been taken off the shelf.
On May 31, three soft drink products of Uni-President were also found to contain DEHP, an industrial plasticizer linked to hormone disorders and cancer risks.
Dong Jinshi, executive vice-president of the International Food Packaging Association, believes that more discoveries of DEHP-tainted products will follow.
Dong called for more forceful measures from government authorities and preemptive investigations of DEHP use in other products, such as milk tea, yogurt and other sports drink products, saying the damage would be immeasurable given the additive's harmfulness and the size of the Chinese market.
Taiwan's health authorities on Tuesday ordered companies to verify their products do not contain six chemical plasticizers, including DEHP. Companies that failed to produce the required certification will see their products off the shelf and out of the market.
Five categories of products, including sports drinks, juices, tea drinks, fruit jams or syrups, and tablets or powders, were required to show their certifications.
Hong Kong on Tuesday banned two Taiwan-made drinks, Speed sport drink and Speed lemon flavor, after tests showed they were tainted with excessive amounts of DEHP.
Last week, Taiwan authorities recalled over 460,000 bottles of sports drinks and fruit juice, over fears that they were contaminated with DEHP.
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