Taiwanese people are stuck in "toxic starch" panic

Pearl milk tea, glutinous rice balls, slats, meatballs, chicken platters... These have always been regarded as the classics of Taiwanese cuisine, and they are the daily favorites of the Taiwanese people. Now, because of the outbreak of poisonous starches, everyone talks about the change of color.

After the storm of plasticizers, no one thought that once again detonated the island's food safety issues - poisonous starch.

In March and April of this year, the investigation station in Chiayi County, Taiwan, was reportedly accused of discovering that “toxic starch” maleic acid was found in food. The health bureaus across the Taiwan government immediately conducted investigations to trace poisonous starch and found that it was suspected to be adulterated with maleic acid. Acid starch products are seized and sealed. Subsequently, poisonous starch events continued to burn. On the 25th of the same day, the volume of sealed storage surged by nearly 120 tons, and a total of 206 tons have been sealed up so far. Inspectors said that 50 kilograms of maleic acid can modulate 6,000 kilograms of modified starch, and the output is quite large. Many foods in Taiwan have already been “collapsed”.

Bigger snowballs

On the 14th, the health bureaus of all counties and cities in Taiwan launched a comprehensive inspection, spot-checking hypermarkets and supermarkets. As of the 15th, a total of 7,307 products containing certain poisonous starches were removed from the market. At the same time, the Taiwan "Department of Health" is also tracing the source of poisonous starch. Kang Zhaozhou, head of Taiwan's food and drug administration department, said that through the Health Bureau's sampling of marketable raw materials and inspections from the upstream to the downstream, the double-sided virus-killed starch circulation is in circulation, and it is hoped that the middle and small-distributors of the starch distributors will be promptly investigated as soon as possible. Come out, after the full recovery of the end product.

The bigger the snowball rolls. According to reports from Taiwan Media, there are currently 8 maleate-based starch manufacture factories and 16 starch distributors involved in the case. The inspectors described "a big hang like a meat oyster."

Maleic acid, also known as maleic acid, belongs to the raw materials of resins and other chemical adhesives. It is generally used as insulation in coatings or as a raw material to produce pesticides. It is a toxic raw material for industrial use, and it is added to starch for human consumption. Poisonous starch. The price of poisonous starches differed from that of qualified starches by 4 to 6 times, so they were added to food by the black heart merchants and sent to the people's table.

However, according to the European Union’s assessment, the daily tolerable dose (TDI) of maleic acid for males by weight is 0.5 mg/kg, and for a 60 kg adult, the maximum tolerable dose per day is 30 mg. Direct contact of maleic acid with humans can damage the mucosal tissues of human organs and can damage human kidneys.

Night market stalls "collapse"

On the 22nd, the Changhua Land Prosecutor's Office and the Health Bureau staff visited a member of the Linpan Township dealership and found that after the industry started buying poisonous starch from upstream manufacturers last year, they also produced a variety of powdered sweet potato powder and sold them to the downstream. The snack industry, among them, has a so-called exclusive recipe chicken fried flour that has been tested to contain high concentrations of maleic acid. The Health Bureau in Changhua is worried that the toxic starch blended by the middle dealers may have flown to the downstream night markets and snack stalls.

The people in Taiwan have become trapped in "toxic food" and have even surpassed the turmoil of previous plasticizers. Taiwan has the title of "King Kidney Kingdom". After the outbreak of the poisonous starch incident, some nephrologists and toxicologists said: "The kidney culprit is finally found." Jiang Shoushan, chief physician of Department of Nephrology, Xinguang Hospital, said that maleic acid was used in animal experiments. Can cause tubular damage to the dog, causing irreversible damage.

Poisonous starch invades everyday life of ordinary people. This time, it seems that nobody can say that the black heart food is far away from me. Lin Jieliang, Director of Clinical Toxicology at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou, said that many people take the glutinous rice balls and meatballs as their staple foods. On a chicken row, there are usually about 200 grams of fried flour. If a fried chicken powder contains toxic starch, then a 60-kg adult who eats 20 chickens a year may cause infertility or Affects kidney function.

The poisonous starch incident in Taiwan also spread to Hong Kong and Singapore. The Singapore government asked importers to recycle 11 kinds of related products imported from Taiwan on the 26th. Some of Taiwan's starchy foods are also sold in Hong Kong. The Food Safety Center of the Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said on the 25th that it will pay close attention to the incident, but it has not yet issued a "food alert" on any Taiwanese food.

What is "collapse?"

The poisonous starch incident not only caused people to feel uneasy, but also made restaurant operators face an unprecedented crisis.

Some shops that crowd on crowds during holidays are now extremely deserted. Chicken dealers groused and complained when interviewed by the media in the island that they “don’t know the toxic starch in fried chicken powder.” There were netizens who found “Wang Wang” Wang Dongqing. Wang Dongqing, an 82-year-old former senior high school chemistry teacher, was thought to have developed a technology to add maleic acid to starch in Taiwan. On the 26th, Wang Dongqing accepted the visit for the first time, saying that maleic acid has become non-toxic after being oxidized and can be used in food supplements overseas. For those who were made of toxic substances by unscrupulous manufacturers, without knowing it, it was a black pot.

As for the facts, further investigations by the relevant departments are required. However, these are obviously "end" rather than "this." In recent days, food safety in Taiwan has continuously sounded the alarm. In addition to the poisonous starch, it also detected poisoned soy sauce and abuse of expired raw materials. Many industry criticized the "Food and Drug Administration of the Department of Health" and did not remember that "plasticizers" harmed the catering industry's lessons. They imposed too loose controls and penalties on food additive operators. They also did not establish a strict "flow management system". The people said that if the "Department of Health" will only be able to make up for the fate and not learn from it, the panic will continue to emerge.

On the 26th, the Taiwan authorities’ “Department of Health” Qiu Wenda discussed with a number of experts on toxicology, food, and public health scholars, and proposed to impose heavy penalties on NT$10 million and increase the way of reporting bonuses, and include it in criminal liability in order to deter No health care providers; Taiwan’s health department has also developed stickers in qualified stores to facilitate consumer identification.