Tests find heavy metals in Ting Hsin oil
Taiwan News, Staff Writer
2014-11-05 04:52 PM
Central News Agency
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Tests conducted on oil products imported from Vietnam by the Ting Hsin International group found the presence of heavy metals, reports said Wednesday.
The tests were part of a battery of inspections resulting from the use of animal feed-grade oil from Vietnam’s Dai Hanh Phuc Co. by Ting Hsin and its subsidiaries, which passed their products off as fit for human consumption.
The Changhua District Prosecutors Office took samples of 12 products from the Ting Hsin Oil and Fat Co. factory in Pingtung County and had them tested by the Food and Drug Administration for heavy metals, reports said Wednesday.
The tests on lard oil and beef tallow turned up excessive amounts of lead and copper, but also the presence of chromium, which is completely banned in food, reports said.
The beef tallow from Dai Hanh Phuc contained 0.73 parts per million of lead, above the legal maximum of 0.1 ppm, reports said. The copper level stood at 0.54 ppm, more than ten times the legal limit of 0.4 ppm. The beef tallow also contained 0.08 ppm of chromium, even though that metal is not supposed to be found at all.
As to the lard oil, its lead level amounted to 0.4 ppm, the copper level to 0.9 ppm, reports said.
Because of recent media reports that the Vietnamese oil products might also have been contaminated with dioxin from Agent Orange used by the United States military during the Vietnam War, Changhua prosecutors and the FDA agreed to conduct tests for 29 types of dioxin and related toxic substances. National Cheng Kung University would be in charge of the research, reports said. Dioxin can cause cancer and birth defects.
November 10 was the earliest date that the tests could show results, reports said.
