Quan Tong Lard Passes Inspection but Remains Illegal: Food Safety Expert Criticizes Failure to Test for Key Carcinogens

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the Ministry of Health and Welfare yesterday (the 8th) released the test results for Strong Guan Company's "Quan Tong Lard." For items such as acid value, total polar materials, and benzo(a)pyrene, all were either not detected or within normal ranges; as for Strong Guan's raw material oil, the only issue was an elevated acid value. Because prosecutors and police found that Strong Guan Company used waste cooking oil as raw material for its lard, the Executive Yuan, based on the FDA's test results, reached the conclusion of "qualified but illegal."

However, some food safety experts questioned that the FDA only tested items such as acid value, total polar materials, and benzo(a)pyrene, and completely missed the point, because unscrupulous operators all know what the current tests for edible oils cover, and will certainly use additives or change their processes so that waste cooking oil, after processing, meets the testing standards.

The FDA did not test for key carcinogens based on the characteristics of waste cooking oil, yet allowed the Executive Yuan to reach the conclusion that "Quan Tong Lard" was qualified but illegal, putting the Executive Yuan in an unjust position and giving the public a false impression.

Expert: Operators Already Know How to Evade Official Testing

FDA: Using Waste Cooking Oil as a Food Ingredient Is Already Unlawful

Regarding Chen Juncheng's statement, Chen Huifang, head of the FDA's Research and Testing Division, only said that "acrylamide," "3-MCPD esters," "chloride ions," and "reactions with chicken fat and fish oil" almost all disappear after the refining process for edible fats and oils, so there is little point in including them as test items. The key point is that Strong Guan Enterprise used recycled waste oil as raw material for edible fats and oils, which already violates Article 15, Paragraph 1 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation, under which food or food additives may not be "spoiled or decomposed."

FDA Deputy Director-General Jiang Yumei stated that currently only samples sent by prosecutors and police are being tested; at the product end of Strong Guan Enterprise, in addition to testing "Quan Tong Lard," end food products using that product as an ingredient have also been required to be removed from shelves, and in the future expanded random inspections of Strong Guan Enterprise's other edible oil products are not ruled out.

Reference Materials

Metabolism, Neurotoxicity of Acrylamide and Its Impact on Food Safety
http://goo.gl/gfRGoZ

Chloropropanediol Fatty Acid Esters in Food
http://goo.gl/X9ybTX

Operational Guidelines for Reducing the Content of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (Benzo(a)pyrene) in Food
http://goo.gl/eKHQux