Taiwan food scare 'dates back
decades' By Jens Kastner
TAIPEI - A range of Taiwanese-made food
products have been banned in mainland China and
South Korea, and recalled in the Philippines,
after the discovery that one of Taiwan's leading
chemicals company used a food additive on a
dangerous scale over two decades, threatening the
health of innumerable children. Products involved
are also shipped to the United States.
The
scandal, involving the use of industrial
plasticizer bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) in
beverages, jams, syrups, jellies, calcium
supplements, multivitamin tablets and other
products, recalls the 2008 Chinese melamine
scandal in terms of corporate greed and the risk
posed to children's health.
Plasticizers
such as DEHP are additives that increase a
material's plasticity and are used in production
of all sorts of useful things, such as leather
goods, rainwear, flooring, wiring and
cable, food packaging
materials and children's toys. Last month,
Taiwanese inspectors discovered that Yu Shen
Chemical Co, the island's largest emulsifier
supplier added DEHP to its clouding agent on a
large scale.
Clouding agents, formulated
with palm oil or gum arabic, are used to make
processed foods look more appealing. When
formulated with plasticizers such as DEHP, instead
of with expensive palm oil, what's eaten and drunk
looks even more tempting, and the chemical
furthermore comes with the handy feature that it
significantly extends shelf life. The downside to
the scam, however, could hardly be any steeper:
carcinogen in each contaminated unit inspected by
the Taiwanese authorities topped 600 parts per
million, exceeding by far the allowable daily
intake of the chemical.
And, closely
resembling the 2008 scandal in which mainland
Chinese company Sanlu added melamine, banned for
use in foodstuffs, to baby powder to indicate
higher levels of protein, the main victims in the
Taiwan case are young children.
Children
who consume beverages contaminated with DEHP on a
long-term basis are eight times more at risk of
developing problems with their reproductive
system. The males are more likely to suffer from
feminization and shrinking of the penis and
testicles when they become adults, girls are
facing the prospect of premature development of
their sexual organs. Thyroid dysfunction and
fertility problems threaten these children later
in life.
Another shocking aspect of the
worldwide unprecedented DEHP scam is its duration:
insiders told investigators that similar practices
have been going on for as long as two decades.
Unsurprisingly, the revelations have led
to panic among Taiwan's public and government.
After an army of inspectors descended on the
island's businesses that produce or sell food
stuffs, including clinics and pharmacies, the
scale of the scandal has become ever more
shocking.
Prosecutors allege that Yu Shen purchased as
much as five tonnes of DEHP every month to make
flavor and food coloring agents, selling the
products to chemical and food processing
factories, as well as to bakeries and pastry
shops.
A total of 130 food products were confirmed by
the Food and Drug Administration to contain DEHP,
while 95 manufacturers were found to have used the
banned ingredient.
A total of 244 ingredient-manufacturing
companies, including several renowned brands, were
found to have sourced clouding agents from Yu
Sheng and Pin Han Perfumery Co, another emulsifier
supplier alleged to have carried out a similar
scam.
A total of 40,000 kilograms of juice and jam,
980,000 bottles of tea drinks and more than 2,000
boxes of powdered probiotic products have been
recalled.
127.5 barrels of emulsifiers have been
confiscated.
In Taipei, the sale of 3,448 products for
which businesses could not produce certificates
was suspended by inspectors.
The island's four major convenience store
operators - President Chain Store Corp,
FamilyMart, OK-Mart and Hi-Life - have pulled all
sports drinks from their shelves.
The
problem is not limited to Taiwan. The island's
DEHP-tainted stuff had been shipped to the United
States, mainland China, Hong Kong, the Philippines
and Vietnam. After the Department of Health
informed health authorities in these countries,
Presidential Office spokesman Fang Chiang Tai-chi
stated: "The incident has not only caused great
public concern, but will also affect the economy
and have a negative impact on Taiwan's
international reputation."
In terms of
direct outfall, his statement at first glance
appears to be no exaggeration. Companies are
claiming their business has shrunk by 20% due to
the scandal. Investors are turning away from food
stocks and popular night markets, important for
the tourism sector, have also seen sales decline
significantly.
Taiwanese beverages, jams,
syrups, jellies and other products suspected of
DEHP contamination have been banned by South Korea
and mainland China, and Manila has ordered an
extensive recall of Taiwanese-made food and drink
products.
Even so, while desperate
Taiwanese parents line up at laboratories,
carrying with them the products their children
have been sipping for years, Taiwan's food and
beverage industry accounts for a mere 4% of the
island's domestic manufacturing output, which in
turn contributes to about 25% of gross domestic
product. In terms of exports, prepared food
brought in only US$1.07 billion in 2010, and
cosmetics and supplements are not even listed
among Taiwan's 16 major export goods.
"The
most damage will be done to the catering industry,
manufacturers of food and beverages, convenience
stores and, for a smaller part, also the
pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry," Hu
Sheng-Cheng, an academic at Academia Sinica's
Institute of Economics, told Asia Times Online. Hu
likened the DEHP scandal to a
small-to-medium-sized typhoon in terms of economic
impact.
"Those sectors' combined annual
turnover accounts for NT$900 billion (US$30
billion), and only 10% of them is affected by the
DEHP issue. If the scare lasts no longer than a
month, the loss will be NT$8 billion to NT$10
billion."
Next to children's health, it is
the public's trust in the government and in the
"Made in Taiwan" brand that will be most
negatively affected, he said.
And while
some companies are being hit by the scandal,
others can profit, according Huang Li-hsuan,
professor at Taiwan's National Central
University's Department of Economics.
"Because most of the products involved in
the DEHP scandal are essentials and part of the
Taiwanese public's daily lives, consumers'
flexibility isn't high," Huang said. "So if we say
DEHP decreases sales of this and that product,
such as soft drinks, the public will use other
related products like fresh juice, mineral water,
and so on, as a substitute. In other words, in the
short term, DEHP will make some businesses do
worse but others better."
The danger of
the DEHP scandal denting Taiwan's international
reputation, as suggested by the Presidential
Office spokesman, is also slim, according to Gary
Rawnsley, a professor of Asian International
Communications at the University of Leeds.
Rawnsley, an expert on public diplomacy
and soft power, dismissed the notion that Taiwan's
image abroad could suffer anywhere as much as
China's in 2008 due to the melamine scandal.
"China's scandals have certainly been more
prominent because they are Chinese and China
garners far more media attention across the world
than Taiwan", he said. The DEHP scandal "will have
an effect on the manufacturers but not on Taiwan's
image among the public around the world. The
reason for that is it is not news here [in the UK]
or elsewhere as far as I can see."
Jens Kastner is a Taipei-based
journalist.
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