UK blue rose tea: 11 pesticide residue abnormalities, or possibly mixed with non-edible flowers, pending clarification
Text by Upstream and Downstream reporters Guo Xiuzhen and Zhao Min
The herbal tea ingredient "rose" imported by the well-known beverage company Yingguolan was found to contain 11 pesticide residues, including the insecticide DDT, which has largely been banned internationally. A follow-up investigation by the local health bureau found that this batch of rose petals originated from Yuanyi Trading Company in Kaohsiung, passing through two middlemen - the Zhongdong Jinyuan Chinese Medicine Shop in Kaohsiung and Sanxin International Co., Ltd. in Hsinchu - before reaching Zhoujie Trading Company in Taipei, which finally supplied it to Yingguolan.
Five DDT-type insecticide residues, six other pesticide residues
In early March, the Miaoli County Health Bureau received a complaint from a member of the public who reported dizziness and weakness in the limbs after drinking Yingguolan's rose tea. At first, the person suspected a cold, but the next day, still half-doubting, "bought another cup to try," and again felt unwell. For this reason, inspectors went to the Yingguolan Miaoli store on March 6 to investigate and sent the problematic rose ingredient for testing. A total of 311 pesticide residues were tested; 13 items failed the initial test, and 11 were confirmed on retest. Among these, there were 5 DDT-type insecticide residues, and the other pesticide residues included 6 items in total: acephate, benomyl, dimethoate, monocrotophos, fipronil, and profenofos.
After the test report came out on April 2, the Miaoli County Health Bureau transferred the case to the Tainan City Health Bureau, which has jurisdiction over Yingguolan's head office. The health bureau ordered the operator to remove the products from shelves immediately, and this batch of problematic roses had all been recalled by the 7th. Because Yingguolan pointed to Zhoujie Trading Company in Taipei as the source, after an investigation by the Taipei City Health Bureau today, Zhoujie claimed it had obtained the goods from Yuanyi Trading Company in Kaohsiung, importing 4,500 kg of roses, and that all of these roses were sold to Yingguolan. As for whether the source, Yuanyi, supplied other downstream manufacturers, health authorities are currently investigating.
As for the source company Yuanyi, it imported 4,500 kg of roses from Iran on August 7 last year, and sold 1,020 kg to retailers such as the Zhongdong Jinyuan Chinese Medicine Shop and food ingredient shops, about 2,000 kg, while the Kaohsiung City Health Bureau, following the address during an evening inspection, sealed all 2,500 kg in the warehouse. The flow of the problematic food roses is under investigation by the health bureau.
High residual DDT concentration; estimated to be the concentration remaining after DDT spraying in an area where malaria occurs locally
This batch of problematic roses was found to contain 11 pesticide residues, among which the DDT concentration was as high as 1.47 ppm. Gu Zhishi, section chief of the testing section of the Miaoli County Health Bureau, admitted frankly that this batch of roses smelled very much like toilet air freshener, and the smell really choked people unbearably. Honestly speaking, he was also surprised when the test results came out, saying, "I have never encountered such a situation." He pointed out that the ingredients used in Taiwan's flower teas are mostly imported, but flower teas are a product that is rarely sampled, and most importers are cleared by customs after submitting inspection certificates.
Yuan Shaoying, director of the Department of Environmental Sanitation and Toxic Substances Management of the Environmental Protection Administration, pointed out that the United Nations has a "Stockholm Convention" used to regulate which persistent organic pollutants countries should ban. At present, under this convention, the insecticide DDT is banned globally, and only Africa and India use it for malaria prevention and control.
Yuan Shaoying said that DDT does not decompose easily. Since Taiwan's Toxic Substances Control Act was announced, it has been banned for 26 years. In environmental surveys, DDT can no longer be detected in water bodies. Sometimes, if it is detected in the air, it is very likely caused by illegal use in neighboring countries and then transboundary transport along with suspended particulates. This chemical reaction is called the "grasshopper effect." He admitted frankly that the concentration of the roses sampled by the health authorities this time has exceeded the environmental background level; such a concentration is only possible after DDT spraying in an area where malaria occurs locally.
Outer packaging says Germany, but the content batch number differs from the inspection; suspected resale from another country to Iran
Suspiciously, the outer packaging of this batch of problematic roses indicated the place of origin as Germany. Later, after the operator provided the import customs declaration, it was found that the place of origin written on the form was Iran. Gu Zhishi mentioned that Yingguolan's head office sent import customs declarations for black tea and green tea one after another, and only on the third time did it produce the rose one. Oddly, however, the batch number on the import certificate provided by the operator was actually different from the one inspected. He suspected that this batch of roses might have been sold by a third-world country to Iran through a specific channel.
Regarding the fact that the source of the rose tea was clearly Iran while the place of origin on the outer packaging was marked as Germany, the Taipei City Health Bureau found during its evening investigation that Taipei City's Zhoujie Trading Company had directly altered the place-of-origin labeling, and imposed a fine of 100,000 yuan under the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation.
Director Wang Mingli stated that it has now notified the Kaohsiung City Health Bureau, which has jurisdiction over the source manufacturer Yuanyi Trading Company, to investigate further and clarify issues including product testing. It still must be investigated who repackaged the large packages into smaller packages. She pointed out directly that, in this case, the source company Yuanyi would very likely have to bear a huge fine. Under the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation, excessive pesticide residues can result in a fine of 60,000 to 200 million yuan for the operator.
However, Guo Huijuan, a contact person at Yuanyi Trading, at the very source, clarified that although their rose ingredient was imported from Iran, when this batch came in, they had it tested by SGS and it all passed. She believes that the market is flooded with many rose ingredients lacking detailed sources, saying, "There are so many A-grade goods; it is possible that operators themselves mixed them everywhere, which led to this result."
Customs has no laboratory, making inspections exist in name only?
An expert who declined to be named said that the rose itself is a plant with very many pesticide residues. To avoid pests and diseases and make the flowers look good, farmers usually prepare a pesticide cocktail, mixing at least 7 or 8 kinds or more for spraying, so nearly 60% of roses on the market would definitely fail if tested.
Guo Yiping, owner of the organic rose business "Meikai Sidu," also said that farmers generally growing ornamental roses indeed sometimes mix multiple pesticides in one spraying, while edible flowers rely on biological cultivation techniques or alternative pesticides with lower harm for spraying. She pointed out that the pesticides detected in Yingguolan's roses this time are all very toxic. If there was no problem at the source during import, then it is possible that the operator mixed them in after import.
Facing the detection of DDT, long banned by various countries, in beverages sold on the market, how should source management be strengthened? Feng Runlan, director of the Northern Regional Management Center of the Food and Drug Administration under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said that flowers are divided into two categories in border management. One is "chrysanthemums," which are inspected batch by batch because of past serious pesticide residues in chrysanthemums imported from China; the other is "other flowers," which undergo 5% general sampling. In the future, border management will raise inspections of flower categories imported by Yuanyi to an enhanced 20% sampling.
In response, the expert said that the Food and Drug Administration's current inspection and testing at customs are fundamentally nominal and can only rely on "eye inspection," because when customs inspection laboratories were placed under the Ministry of Economic Affairs along with the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection in the 99th year, the laboratories, inspectors, and so on were all taken away. The Food and Drug Administration can only commission SGS each year, but its annual budget is only 150 million yuan. If it encounters a major national food safety case, such as lean meat powder, and must inspect batch by batch, an exclusion effect will occur: "Once the budget is spent, all it can do is look with its eyes."
He suggested that if the Food and Drug Administration wants to solve the problem of source inspection, it must establish laboratories at customs and fight for inspection budgets; otherwise, problems will continue to explode downstream, and in the end all of them will fall on local health authorities to bear.
Lin Yuzhen, section chief of the food section of the Miaoli County Health Bureau, which detected pesticide residues in the roses this time, also said, "Actually, we have an annual sampling plan every year, targeting the most commonly used cooking oil, fish, meat, and so on in daily life, conducting inspections according to place of origin and season. These routine tasks are already quite saturated. Encountering temporary cases like this makes things even more chaotic. If there were enough resources and manpower, local units would really be very willing to do more to safeguard the public."