After refining, Ting Hsin's oil is even worse than Strong Guan's swill oil, confirmed by the latest research from the National Health Research Institutes
At the end of last year, the Changhua District Court found Ting Hsin Oil Manufacturing not guilty, sparking public outrage, with the judge holding that data such as the acid value of the finished oil product could not prove that Ting Hsin may have used inferior feed oil to make oil, drawing criticism from outsiders over whether even urine could be legal after refining. Yesterday the Taiwan High Court Taichung Branch Court heard the case, and the prosecutor presented new research proving that the quality of Ting Hsin oil was questionable; four unsaturated aldehyde compounds suspected of harming human health (4-HHE, 4HNE, tt-DDE, t-2-DCA) were detected in Ting Hsin oil, not only 30-50 times higher than normal oil products, but even worse than the refined Chang Guann oil made from recycled cooking oil, swill oil and the like.
National Health Research Institutes: Refined Ting Hsin oil is worse than Chang Guann swill oil
Yesterday the Taiwan High Court Taichung Branch Court heard the acquittal case of Ting Hsin Oil Manufacturing, and the prosecutor showed in court a research report commissioned by the Ministry of Health and Welfare from the National Health Research Institutes, which drew a protest from Ting Hsin's lawyer team as a surprise attack. It is understood that the report was produced after the inferior oil incident broke out, when the Ministry of Health and Welfare commissioned the National Health Research Institutes to conduct research-oriented testing for unsaturated aldehydes on the seized refined oils of four companies and five brands, including Ting Hsin, Chang Guann, Tung Ching and Namchow.
The National Health Research Institutes team not only detected in Ting Hsin oil four unsaturated aldehyde compounds suspected of harming human health (4-HHE, 4HNE, tt-DDE, t-2-DCA); Taichung High Prosecutors Office prosecutor Li Ching-yi stated in court yesterday that the data for these four unsaturated aldehydes were 30 to 50 times higher than the oils of Tung Ching and Namchow, and also 3 to 5 times higher than Chang Guann oil refined from recycled cooking oil, swill oil and the like. The difference in quality is evident.
Ling Yong-jian, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at National Tsing Hua University, explained that the main component of oil, triglycerides, will break down into alcohols and organic acids due to hydrolysis and rancidity, and the alcohols upon oxidation become aldehydes; therefore oil with excessive aldehyde content means it has been stored for a long time, is not fresh, or has been processed many times during manufacturing, causing triglycerides to be continuously destroyed. If the data are carefully analyzed and compared with other brands of oil, an abnormally high amount is very likely adulteration or counterfeiting.
Is the oil maliciously adulterated? Using food fingerprints to find the problem DNA
It is understood that a research team formed by the National Health Research Institutes together with scholars from National Taiwan University, Fu Jen Catholic University and others conducted oil testing research for as long as one year. Chiang Hung-che, chief secretary of the National Health Research Institutes, said that existing statutory oil standards only test heavy metals, acid value, total polar compounds and the like, but these can all be reduced through purification, making it very difficult for testing units to distinguish ordinary oil from inferior oil, so the Ministry of Health and Welfare commissioned the National Health Research Institutes to develop a new testing method.
Ling Yong-jian pointed out that this testing method of the National Health Research Institutes is called "food fingerprinting", which simply means matching and comparing the fingerprints of normal oil and problem oil, finding the places where the fingerprint signals differ, amplifying and analyzing them; usually, if a business intends to adulterate or counterfeit, the amount added will certainly not be low, so the problem can be found very easily.
Ling Yong-jian said, "Normal fresh oil products should not contain aldehydes; even if present, the amount is very small. The aldehyde content of Ting Hsin oil is so high that one possibility is that the oil product is not fresh and has been stored too long; otherwise, the oil-making process has undergone multiple treatments, so the triglycerides will continuously decompose and oxidize; he further explained that just as wine left too long will produce carcinogens such as formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, if aldehydes accumulate too much in the body and cannot be excreted, they will cause harm to health, and the same is true for oil."
Toxicologist: Among the four unsaturated aldehyde compounds, 2 have animal hazards and 2 have cellular hazards
Yen Tsung-hai, a domestic toxicology expert and physician in the Division of Toxicology at Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, explained that among the four unsaturated aldehyde compounds mentioned in this research report, tt-DDE, 4HNE, 4-HHE and t-2-DCA, there are already foreign animal experiment data for the first two, among which tt-DDE can cause weight loss, gastric ulcers and acute necrosis in rats and mice, 4HNE has been shown by animal experiments to damage the liver and kidneys, and another intravenous injection study says it can cause lung damage in animals.
What about the latter two, 4-HHE and t-2-DCA? Yen Tsung-hai said that currently only cell experiment reports show that they may cause cytotoxicity and genetic damage; he stressed that the toxicity of these four unsaturated aldehyde compounds is still at the research stage, and related clinical research is still very lacking, but why the content in Ting Hsin problem oil is so high is a point that needs to be investigated.
Yesterday, although the prosecutor of the Taiwan High Court Taichung Branch Court asked Yen Tsung-hai to testify and analyze the report, because the report was protested by the defense as surprise evidence, the judge in court ultimately ruled not to discuss the data first, and to first discuss only the four unsaturated aldehydes obtained from testing.
Ling Yong-jian said that in fact the triglyceride proportions of different vegetable oils and animal fats are all different, and if the data of these four aldehydes in Ting Hsin problem oil are further analyzed, it can also be seen what oil was added; for example, if it is purely lard, the DNA will be a single type, while if it is recycled gutter oil, the DNA analysis will be very complex. He stressed that using fingerprinting analysis to examine food problems has already become an international trend, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare should draw on this experience and quickly establish the method.
Ye Yen-po, director of the Changhua County Public Health Bureau, believed that while having new research data to support the prosecution is certainly a good thing, in the first instance at the Changhua District Court, the evidence presented by the Changhua prosecutors was already very strong (one is the end-product test report, including the acid value, total polar compounds and aflatoxin of Ting Hsin oils and fats, and the other is that the source of Ting Hsin raw material oil, Vietnam's "Dai Hanh Phuc" company, only made feed oil). Why did the court not accept it, producing a perception contrary to the Food Safety Act? That is probably what the government needs to review.
Ye Yen-po explained that Yung Cheng and Chiu Feng, which also purchased Vietnam Dai Hanh Phuc feed oil, were each sentenced by the Chiayi District Court to fixed-term imprisonment of 8 to 15 years; the evidence presented by the prosecution in these two places was clearly the same, yet the Changhua District Court found Ting Hsin not guilty. Apart from differences in judges' views, the Food and Drug Administration should also, based on the Changhua judge's legal reasoning, review whether the Food Safety Act has loopholes or is not clear enough, and fill them in.