During his lifetime, Lin Jie-liang called for amending the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation to block toxic substances from entering the food chain.
Written by Dr. Lin Chung-ying, Clinical Toxicology Laboratory, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital
As major public-health incidents, from plasticizers and ractopamine to toxic starch and cooking oil, have emerged one after another, loopholes in food-safety policy and legislation have made the public's helplessness painfully clear with each new scandal.
Chemical preparations that maintain a food's flavor and color and extend its shelf life are called food additives. By their characteristics they are divided into three categories: single-ingredient additives (such as benzoic acid or vitamin E used as preservatives), compound additives (such as clouding agents made from two or more single-ingredient additives - gum arabic, emulsifiers, edible palm oil, starch and so on), and flavoring agents. All must be added and managed in accordance with the "Scope, Limits and Specifications for the Use of Food Additives."
However, since the inspection and registration requirement for "compound food additives" was abolished in 2000, compound preparations intended exclusively for food processing have often been replaced with industrial raw materials, leaving downstream manufacturers unaware of what the upstream supplier has put into the ingredients; misuse incidents follow one after another, directly affecting consumer health.
The claim by the Food and Drug Administration that "a compound is made up of single-ingredient food additives, so if the single ingredients have already obtained approval numbers, the compound should raise no concern" must be premised on the single ingredients being highly stable. For a juice additive consisting of A (benzoic acid) + B (vitamin C) + C (citric acid), stability requires that no interaction occur. Yet research shows that, in a long-term storage environment, benzoic acid + vitamin C + citric acid can actually produce 'benzene,' a human carcinogen.
As for the Ministry of Health and Welfare's reported claim that "compound registration cannot align with international practice," the truth is that foreign countries strictly control food-additive factories: besides requiring factory registration, they also require licensed technicians to carry out the blending, reaction and analysis of additives. As a result, no compound inspection and registration is needed, and downstream manufacturers can buy directly from food-additive factories. In Taiwan, by contrast, food-additive manufacturers are as numerous as roadside stalls, many without even factory registration, let alone any monitoring to control their food additives.
The Industrial Development Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs also keeps putting out the message that "compound inspection and registration will cause large foreign food companies to withdraw their factories," not realizing that chemical plants in Taiwan often sell food additives on the side, so industrial raw materials get mixed into food without anyone noticing. The replacement of the edible palm oil used to make clouding agents with plasticizers, and the mixing of maleic acid into modified starch to make toxic starch, are the best examples. Moreover, before Taiwan abolished compound inspection and registration, foreign manufacturers also had to register and be managed in accordance with the policy; this is not something that can be brushed aside with talk of factories withdrawing.
The high-fructose corn syrup used by the dazzling array of beverage shops on every street, along with genetically modified soybean foods, fills the everyday diet all around us. Currently, Taiwanese regulations require labeling only when genetically modified raw materials make up 5% or more; the cultivation of genetically modified crops is permitted by regulation only in laboratories or for research purposes. Yet more than 90% of the genetically modified soybeans and corn we import through international trade means that, while our land grows no GM crops, we eat GM traded goods. There has been no risk assessment at all of whether GM foods harm the health of our people - a truly ironic phenomenon.
To safeguard people's health, increase the value derived from nature, and close off the opportunities that unscrupulous merchants exploit, now that the Food Safety Act is about to be deliberated at an extra legislative session of the Legislative Yuan, I call on the public to support the amendment of the Food Safety Act - the major amendments to restore the inspection and registration of compound food additives, require labeling of GM foods, and establish a traceability system - and to give the public back the right to know and the right to eat safely. This needs your care and your sharing.