Caramel Used in Cola Drinks may Cause Cancer?

Brief: Cola Drinks was reported to be carcinogenic: An ingredient used in Coca-Cola and Pepsi is a cancer risk and should be banned, an influential lobby group has claimed. but Coca-Cola rejected the CSPI's concerns, so should we to throw away Coca Coke from now on?

An ingredient used in Coca-Cola and Pepsi is a cancer risk and should be banned, an influential lobby group has claimed.

The concerns relate to an artificial brown colouring agent that the researchers say could be causing thousands of cancers.‘The caramel colouring used in Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and other foods is contaminated with two cancer-causing chemicals and should be banned,’said the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a health lobby group based in Washington, DC.

This next morning Coca-Cola rejected the CSPI's concerns. A spokesman said: 'Our beverages are completely safe. CSPI's statement irresponsibly insinuates that the caramel used in our beverages is unsafe and  maliciously raises cancer concerns among consumers. This does a disservice to the very public for which CSPI purports to serve. Studies show that the caramel we use does not cause cancer.’

* Originally Posted: About Additive

Harmful Food Additives Found at Snacks and Beverages in Taipei Teashops

Cue:Sometimes our vision clears only after our eyes are washed away with tears.



A random sampling revealed that some of the ingredients added to snacks and beverages sold at shops in Taipei failed a test for a problematic additive, Taipei City health officials told a press conference yesterday.

The city’s Department of Health randomly inspected 54 ingredients often added to drinks and sweets sold at teashops, and found three of them did not meet regulations, constituting a 5.6 percent failure rate.

The three items were found to contain high levels of sorbic acid, a type of food preservative that is unfit for consumption, Food and Drug Division Director Chen Li-chi said.

The ingredients found to be unsafe were marble-sized black tapioca balls, taro beads and konjac, a long strand of chewy jelly consumed throughout Asia.

Officials have ordered that sales of the three products cease and any stocks be destroyed. They also fined the suppliers of one of the products, who was registered in the city.

Since the other two manufacturers who provided the unsafe items are not located in Taipei, the city government has forwarded the case on to the appropriate jurisdictional authorities, Chen said.

The officials called for food manufacturers to regulate themselves according to the Act Governing Food Sanitation and reminded the public that violators face fines between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000.

Results of future food inspections will also be posted on the health agency’s Web site, the officials said.

Digression:Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.

Originally Posted: About Additive

Experts Query Use of Rice Additives

In China, Some food safety experts have expressed doubts about the use of additives in rice, although officials said they are free from potential safety hazards.



In response to media reports questioning the revised National Standard for Food Additives, the Ministry of Health issued a statement on Saturday, saying two additives - sodium diacetate and chitosan - were permissible for rice, and that a thickening agent - sodium starch phosphate - can be used in some rice products, such as rice noodles.

In the statement, Wang Zhutian, deputy director of the Fortified Food Office (FFO) under the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said sodium diacetate is a widely used preservative in grain, rice and pastry, and chitosan is a coating agent used in rice. Both can help retain freshness and prevent mildew.

The revised regulation, issued early this month, comes into force on June 20.

"The two additives were allowed in rice before 2007, and they passed the safety assessment," Chen Junshi, director of the office, told China Daily on Sunday.

However, some food experts warned that using additives in rice might put food safety at risk, Beijing News reported on Friday.

One expert who wished to remain anonymous was less convinced.

"Rice is a staple food in China as well as a major ingredient for other food products. We must treat the use of rice additives with great caution," the expert was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

Other experts also questioned the need for additives in rice.

"According to the standards for using additives, a substance is used when it is technically indispensable. If rice is rot-resistant without additives, they should not be added," said Sang Liwei, a food-safety lawyer and the China representative of the NGO Global Food Safety Forum.

"I have worked in the grain industry for many years, but never heard of the practice of adding additives to rice during processing. There is no need," a technical veteran with the Food Research Institute of Guangdong province, surnamed Guo, was quoted on Saturday by Guangzhou-based Information Times as saying. According to Guo, there are two ways of packaging grain products in China to keep the rice fresh: vacuum packaging and aerating nitrogen into the packaging bags.

"It is easy, safe and inexpensive to retain the freshness of rice," Guo told the paper.

The revised national standard sought opinions from July to September last year, but officials said they did not receive any objections, so the additives were included on the final list.

"According to the procedure, if someone files an objection, the health department will examine and decide whether to exclude the additive," Chen said.

The standards can also be changed at any time if there are objections from the industry.

"If any rice manufacturer objected to the use of the additives, the health authority will take advice from other businesses and the industry, and make changes in the standard accordingly," Chen said.

Originally Posted: About Additive

European Food Safety Authority: Bisphenol A is Safe to Human

(Brussels, AFP) European Food Safety Authority announced on 5 October that Bisphenol A, which was widely used in the manufacturing of baby’s feeding bottles and other plastic containers is not harmful to human health.

The scientific team under European Food Safety Authority said they "found no new evidence that can leading to change recommendations on "the tolerable daily intake of bisphenol A”. The EFSA recommended that as long as the intake quantity is as no more than the limit of 0.05 mg / kg body weight, bisphenol A is safe, it will not cause harm to human’s body.

Bisphenol A is widely used in polycarbonate plastics manufacturing industry as a plastic additive, which includes inner coatings of plastic baby bottles and metal cans. As for there are suspicion on bisphenol A may be harmful to human health, the French have banned the sale of baby bottles containing Bisphenol A and other similar chemicals, while Denmark banned the use of Bisphenol A in manufacturing materials will be touched by children food from 0 to 3 years.

Originally Posted: About Additive