Business Weekly Milk Investigation: FDA Expert Meeting Says Chen Liang-yu's Self-Developed Testing Method Is Still Early-Stage Research

The controversy over Business Weekly's "alarming milk" report continues. Yesterday the Ministry of Health and Welfare invited four experts, the study's principal investigator, Ming Chuan University professor Chen Liang-yu, and Business Weekly deputy editor-in-chief Liu Pei-hsiu to a five-hour expert meeting, and found that the mass spectrum of metabolites detected by Chen Liang-yu differed considerably from the database, to the point that even what was detected could not be determined, and that the self-developed extraction method also could not clearly explain how drugs could be traced back from the metabolites. FDA Deputy Director-General Chiang Yu-mei said the report is not highly reliable, that there are no plans to repeat the experiment, and that she hopes the storm will end here.

Mass Spectrum Comparison Shows Differences; Even the Metabolites Cannot Be Determined

Yesterday the Ministry of Health and Welfare invited 2 experts in mass spectrometry analytical chemistry, 1 in dairy processing, 1 in animal nutrition and metabolism, Chen Liang-yu, and Business Weekly deputy editor-in-chief Liu Pei-hsiu to a meeting, which ran from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. The FDA pointed out today that Chen Liang-yu's report has many shortcomings, with problems in the sample extraction method, the identification of metabolites, and the inference of the source.

Although he provided four reference papers, the relevance of the extraction method to the literature is low; the mass spectrum of the metabolites also differs from the database used for comparison, and he was unable to explain how he determined that these metabolites came from drugs such as antibiotics, contraceptives, and sedatives.

It is reported that Chen Liang-yu provided four reference papers, but the experts present believed the relevance of the literature to his extraction method was low, and only then did Chen Liang-yu explain that it was a method he had developed himself; in addition, the mass spectrum pattern of the metabolites showed a considerable gap from the standard database charts he attached, and when experts asked Chen Liang-yu what comparison conditions he had set, he said they were set by the researchers and that he did not know either; when experts asked how he judged that the metabolites came from drugs such as antibiotics, contraceptives, and sedatives, he merely showed a chemistry website and said he could infer the source of the metabolites from the chemical structure.

Chiang Yu-mei said that Chen Liang-yu's work is early-stage research, and the FDA must consider whether testing for metabolites is meaningful before continuing research, but the experts at yesterday's meeting believed the FDA need not repeat the test according to his method, and that if Chen Liang-yu is interested he can continue the research.

Chiang Yu-mei also disclosed that Business Weekly sent the laboratory name and address in a confidential document, "it is a laboratory, but it does not have food testing certification."

Business Weekly brand public relations director Lin Chiu-pao said that all the information has already been handed over to the Ministry of Health and Welfare and that there would be no further response; no letter of evidence preservation has been received from the dairy farmers' association so far, and there will be no next step yet. Chen Liang-yu's mobile phone was turned off.

FDA Will Not Publicly Disclose Chen Liang-yu's Testing Method

Chen Ming-ju, a professor in the Department of Animal Science and Technology at National Taiwan University, believes that it is a good thing for the media to act as a watchdog for the public, and that everyone can submit items for testing, but it must be done in the correct way, examining whether the report is mature enough.

She said the milk incident shows that the public's sense of insecurity about food is very high and that they distrust the government; although the social cost paid for this incident is very high, society has also learned a lesson from it, for example the public can better understand testing methods, what the government normally does for oversight, and testing; the government can also learn where the public's concerns lie, whether there are gaps in the management of veterinary drugs, how to release information to the public, and how other countries do it.

However, Chiang Yu-mei said the FDA will not disclose Chen Liang-yu's testing method. Initially, it was because Chen Liang-yu did not, in accordance with Article 40 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation, disclose the testing method and unit, that a letter was issued asking him to submit it to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, "otherwise we would have no way to judge the content of the research."

When reporters pressed further, asking whether Article 40 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation requires "disclosure," whether the target of disclosure means the general public, whether Chen Liang-yu should disclose it publicly, and to whom academic institutions wishing to see the testing report should apply, Chiang Yu-mei did not answer directly, saying only that she hopes that in the future, when the private sector releases test results, the reports will state the testing method and unit, and that if outsiders want to know Chen Liang-yu's testing method they can ask him directly, "but if he is unwilling to provide it, there is currently no relevant penalty provision."