Almost 7,500 DEHP-tainted products sold in city

Incomplete statistics of the HCMC Market Monitoring Bureau shows that nearly 7,500 food products tainted with DEHP toxic substance have been sold in the city recently.

Dang Van Duc, head of the agency, told the Daily last Friday that the food came in various types of cans, packs and bottles. The number was calculated after a working session with four Taiwan-made food importers and nine supermarkets in the city.

There were nine enterprises and supermarkets reporting imports of over 62,700 food units from Taiwan that were confirmed to have DEHP while four other organizations had yet to give exact numbers.

The enterprises and retailers so far have withdrawn or kept over 57,800 products in warehouses, Duc said.

The working session aims to supervise the recalling of the DEHP-tainted products given instructions of the HCMC Food Administration as local importers currently are allowed to recall the products by themselves. In the future, related forces will carry out inspections and confiscate toxic products on the market and impose punitive sanctions.

The city’s administration on June 14 released a document to ask companies involved in the sales of drinks and food additives originating from Taiwan to make a report on infected products found and DEHP content testing results before  Monday. They are told to inform related agencies about the infected products within 24 hours, announce it to the public and withdraw them from shelves.

Three beverage importers in HCMC named Gia Thinh Phat, Nhat Phu Quy and Ha Thanh have so far reported that they have completed recalling DEHP-tainted products on the local market. They have withdrawn over 1,300 plastic bottles of 22 types of syrup and fruit juice.

The plasticizer DEHP is used in a type of food additive known as clouding agent that makes products more visually appealing to consumers. The substance is believed to cause cancer.

Tags: DEHP-tainted products