Testing laundry detergent with food standards: Miaoguanjia cries foul

Tsai Tsung-yang, chairman of Taiwan's Miaoguanjia, yesterday criticized groups such as the Homemakers United Foundation for insisting that "permethrin" is an agricultural insecticide and for using "food" residue standards as the basis, saying this is unfair.

Tsai Tsung-yang came forward to explain, stressing that Miaoguanjia is also an unwitting victim, and that the company well knows and understands that consumers have no obligation to suffer alongside Miaoguanjia. Therefore, before the matter has been clarified, and from the standpoint of protecting consumers, the company resolutely decided to take 3 products off the shelves and to accept returns and refunds.

Tsai Tsung-yang said the three products include "Miaoguanjia Anti-Allergy Laundry Detergent 4400-gram bottle", "Miaoguanjia Anti-Allergy Laundry Detergent 1800-gram bag" and "Miaoguanjia Anti-Allergy Cold Wash Detergent 3000-gram bottle", and that refunds to consumers will be given uniformly at the "list price".

But Tsai Tsung-yang criticized civil groups for insisting that "permethrin" is an agricultural insecticide, calling this highly biased. He pointed out that permethrin has quite a wide range of uses; for example, in agriculture it is commonly called a pesticide, when used to treat head lice and scabies it is called a medicine, and when used for clothing protection it becomes a protective agent. "Why not say permethrin is a medicine?"

Second, Tsai Tsung-yang pointed out that testing of anti-allergy laundry detergent should use the residue amount after washing as the standard, not the content in the liquid itself. Miaoguanjia will commission well-known testing institutions in Taiwan and Japan to test the residue after washing, and will then make a formal public announcement.

Finally, Tsai Tsung-yang said with displeasure that the Homemakers United Foundation used the Council of Agriculture's "food" residue standard of 0.05ppm for crops to test a pure "external use" laundry product, and publicly claimed that Miaoguanjia laundry detergent contains permethrin exceeding the standard by hundreds of times, which is highly biased and unfair to Miaoguanjia.

Tsai Tsung-yang said that about 500 bottles of laundry detergent have been recovered so far, and that people can bring the 3 products or receipts to nearby stores for refunds. Since the Homemakers United Foundation's disclosure, tangible losses have reached NT$14 million, while the intangible loss of goodwill is difficult to estimate.