The 52-year-old inspector, a mother of two surnamed Yang, first became suspicious in March of the rare contamination when she was routinely checking beverages to find out whether they were adulterated with any banned chemicals, said Lo Chi-fang, secretary-general of the DOH's Food and Drug Administration, who refused to divulge Yang's full name in order to maintain her privacy.
Yang became suspicious of a new trace of contamination when she saw abnormal wave-shaped signals on her gas chromatography screen as she was inspecting certain sports and soft drinks, including various brand-name ones, according to Lo.
Yang, who works for the Food and Drug Administration under the DOH, spent two weeks identifying the signals as being caused by DEHP, which had never previously been used, to her knowledge, as a food additive.
"No medical or food-processing archives from Taiwan or abroad have indicated that DEHP has been added to food or drink products, " Lo quoted Yang as saying.
During the ensuing several weeks, Yang discovered that the amount of DEHP in each bottle of tainted beverage topped 600 ppm (parts per million) , far exceeding the allowable daily intake of the banned chemical through other channels, including plastic film wrap, nail polish and plastic containers.
The DOH announced on Monday that DEHP, a carcinogen, has been detected in 16 samples of sports and soft drinks, including Sunkist lemon juice, Taiwan Yes energy-boosting drink, and a sports drink manufactured by Young Energy Source Co. All these drinks have been pulled off store shelves.
Source:Taiwan News.com
