Dimethyl yellow carcinogenic dried tofu removed from shelves and recalled, 40,000 kg affected; six other soy products' emulsifiers sent for testing
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held a press conference this morning to explain the progress of the investigation into the cancer-causing dimethyl yellow dried tofu; as of 10 a.m. today, the problematic products had been removed from shelves and 40260 kg had been recalled. In addition to the Qianxin soy product emulsifier, yesterday the FDA also collected samples of six soy product emulsifiers (defoamers) from five manufacturers and sent them to the FDA laboratory; the test results are expected to be announced within one week at the earliest.
Regarding the scope of impact of Qianxin Industrial's illegal use of dimethyl yellow, the FDA said that after continued tracing of downstream distribution, the number of problematic product items increased from 73 yesterday to 115 announced today, and a total of 40260 kg of dimethyl yellow problematic products had been removed from shelves and recalled.
In addition, the Taipei City Health Department conducted random testing of foods sold on the market, including pallet tofu, tofu skin, dried tofu, flower tofu, and fried tofu, to see whether they contained dimethyl yellow. So far 20 samples have been collected, and the test results are expected to be released in 2 weeks. A total of 27321 units of Weilih fried sauce noodles and 844 units of Dagan noodles - Old Beijing fried sauce flavor products have been removed from shelves, totaling 8352.5 kg.
According to statistics from the Taipei City Health Department, as of now the total number of problematic products removed from shelves at retail venues is 69,988 units, 15,546.6 kg. The Health Department also inspected the Taipei City food ingredient registration platform and confirmed that none of the problematic products mentioned above were used or sold at the lunches or campus cooperative stores of Taipei City kindergartens, elementary schools, junior high schools, or senior high and vocational schools.
