Clipping Board » Illness Enters through Mouth ─ The information that has been made public is often just the tip of the iceberg...
United "2011/05/24" Reporters He Jiongrong, Chen Qiuyun, Jian Huizhen / Connected Report
For the first time in the country, manufacturers were found to have illegally added harmful plasticizers to the food additive clouding agent. The person in charge of the manufacturer Yu Shen, Lai Junjie, was detained by prosecutors upon request. Preliminary investigations revealed that Lai had been selling non-compliant clouding agents for up to thirty years, with raw material supplies spanning across Taiwan and even extending to manufacturers in mainland China and Vietnam.
Fifty-seven-year-old Lai Junjie is the largest supplier of clouding agents in the country. Prosecutors stated that clouding agents, when blended with refined palm oil, can be used as food additives. However, refined palm oil is costly, and to reduce expenses, Lai Junjie consistently used industrial plasticizers in the clouding agents, supplying them to at least forty-five beverage and dairy manufacturers across Taiwan, including even biotech companies producing health foods and pharmaceutical factories.
Prosecutors pointed out that the cost of palm oil is five times that of industrial plasticizers. After amassing huge profits from these unethical practices, Lai even invested in setting up a large-scale clouding agent manufacturing plant in Dongguan, mainland China. Given that Lai’s raw material suppliers also included manufacturers from mainland China and Vietnam, it is speculated that the local beverage markets in these regions may also have been "infiltrated" by clouding agents containing plasticizers.
Investigators revealed that when they searched Yu Shen, Lai Junjie remarked, "Do you know why people from Southeast Asia don’t suffer from acclimatization when they come to Taiwan? Because their products are even more toxic than Taiwan’s." This suggests he did not consider his use of plasticizers to be a serious issue.
Prosecutors noted that Lai Junjie’s company, Yu Shen Spice Company, located in Zhonghe District, New Taipei City, had been ordering large quantities of plasticizers from a manufacturer in Xizhi District, New Taipei City for many years, illegally adding them to clouding agents for sale.
The scandal was only uncovered when the Tainan Health Bureau inadvertently discovered suspected adulteration of health foods with Western medicine during random inspections, leading to the accidental detection of plasticizers. On the 20th, the Changhua District Prosecutors Office, in collaboration with the Department of Health, searched Yu Shen Company and Xiecheng Chemical Company in Yuanlin Town, Changhua County, seizing over a hundred barrels of suspected plasticizer-containing clouding agents and related account books, exposing the entire scheme.
Xiecheng Chemical is a major distributor downstream from Yu Shen. After purchasing the products, they resold them to a Mr. Liu, the person in charge of Jinzhuan Biochemical Technology Company, who processed them into food additive powders (or syrups) before selling them to beverage manufacturers. Investigators found that the person in charge of Xiecheng, surnamed Weng, to maintain control over the distributor position and prevent downstream businesses from ordering directly from Yu Shen, relabeled the barrels of clouding agents after purchase.
Currently, prosecutors and health authorities have identified product lists from food manufacturers, discovering that clouding agents containing plasticizers were used to produce over fifty-five types of beverages, including guava juice, apple juice, red guava juice, passion fruit juice, mango pudding, konjac fruit jelly, juice powder, and yogurt powder.
Source: http://tw. news. yahoo. com/ article/ url/ d/ a/ 110524/ 2/ 2s2ll. html
Black Market Goods Sold for 30 Years: Boss Doesn't Care—Southeast Asia Eats Worse
For the first time in the country, manufacturers were found to have illegally added harmful plasticizers to the food additive clouding agent. The person in charge of the manufacturer Yu Shen, Lai Junjie, was detained by prosecutors upon request. Preliminary investigations revealed that Lai had been selling non-compliant clouding agents for up to thirty years, with raw material supplies spanning across Taiwan and even extending to manufacturers in mainland China and Vietnam.
Fifty-seven-year-old Lai Junjie is the largest supplier of clouding agents in the country. Prosecutors stated that clouding agents, when blended with refined palm oil, can be used as food additives. However, refined palm oil is costly, and to reduce expenses, Lai Junjie consistently used industrial plasticizers in the clouding agents, supplying them to at least forty-five beverage and dairy manufacturers across Taiwan, including even biotech companies producing health foods and pharmaceutical factories.
Prosecutors pointed out that the cost of palm oil is five times that of industrial plasticizers. After amassing huge profits from these unethical practices, Lai even invested in setting up a large-scale clouding agent manufacturing plant in Dongguan, mainland China. Given that Lai’s raw material suppliers also included manufacturers from mainland China and Vietnam, it is speculated that the local beverage markets in these regions may also have been "infiltrated" by clouding agents containing plasticizers.
Investigators revealed that when they searched Yu Shen, Lai Junjie remarked, "Do you know why people from Southeast Asia don’t suffer from acclimatization when they come to Taiwan? Because their products are even more toxic than Taiwan’s." This suggests he did not consider his use of plasticizers to be a serious issue.
Prosecutors noted that Lai Junjie’s company, Yu Shen Spice Company, located in Zhonghe District, New Taipei City, had been ordering large quantities of plasticizers from a manufacturer in Xizhi District, New Taipei City for many years, illegally adding them to clouding agents for sale.
The scandal was only uncovered when the Tainan Health Bureau inadvertently discovered suspected adulteration of health foods with Western medicine during random inspections, leading to the accidental detection of plasticizers. On the 20th, the Changhua District Prosecutors Office, in collaboration with the Department of Health, searched Yu Shen Company and Xiecheng Chemical Company in Yuanlin Town, Changhua County, seizing over a hundred barrels of suspected plasticizer-containing clouding agents and related account books, exposing the entire scheme.
Xiecheng Chemical is a major distributor downstream from Yu Shen. After purchasing the products, they resold them to a Mr. Liu, the person in charge of Jinzhuan Biochemical Technology Company, who processed them into food additive powders (or syrups) before selling them to beverage manufacturers. Investigators found that the person in charge of Xiecheng, surnamed Weng, to maintain control over the distributor position and prevent downstream businesses from ordering directly from Yu Shen, relabeled the barrels of clouding agents after purchase.
Currently, prosecutors and health authorities have identified product lists from food manufacturers, discovering that clouding agents containing plasticizers were used to produce over fifty-five types of beverages, including guava juice, apple juice, red guava juice, passion fruit juice, mango pudding, konjac fruit jelly, juice powder, and yogurt powder.
Source: http://tw. news. yahoo. com/ article/ url/ d/ a/ 110524/ 2/ 2s2ll. html