Alcohol industry body knew of plasticizer problem a year ago

Want China Times, Staff Reporter, 2012-11-22

Chinese liquor on sale at a supermarket in Chengdu. (File photo/Xinhua)

The discovery of plasticizers in Chinese liquor products has triggered food security fears with consumers complaining that the China Alcoholic Drinks Industry Association deferred disclosing the matter for 17 months after it became aware of the contamination, Guangzhou's 21st Century Business Herald reports.

The association published a statement on Nov. 19, saying that after a comprehensive inspection of liquor products across the country, it found some products contained levels of toxic plasticizing agents of between 0.495mg/kg and 2.32mg/kg, exceeding legally permissible levels.

The report said China's food safety problems usually arise from the defective management of supervisory and regulatory agencies, as well as flaws in the establishment of product standards.

Under the existing system, the management of liquor products involves a number of government agencies, including the State Council's food safety commission, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Health, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), the State Food and Drug Administration and the China Alcoholic Drinks Industry Association.

In 2004, the State Council or cabinet introduced rules to ensure the implementation of a principle that allowed a government agency to take charge of the supervision of a chain in the industry. For instance, it would allow the Ministry of Agriculture, AQSIQ, the State Administration of Industry and Commerce, and the Ministry of Health to regulate the production chain of agricultural products.

In 2009, the system was made more effective through the Food Safety Law.

When the industrial plasticizer DEHP was found in many soft drink products in Taiwan last year, the scandal sparked a great deal of attention from China's food safety supervisory agencies regarding plasticizer contamination.

In June 2011, the Ministry of Health issued a document, stipulating that the maximum permissible residue level of Dibutyl phthalate (DBP), a commonly used plasticizer, should be 0.3 mg/kg.

Later that month, the State Council's Food Safety Commission published a notice aimed at further strengthening checks that ensured the quality and safety of alcoholic products. The notice stipulated strict checks to guard against safety risks in the production, storage, transport and sales of alcoholic products but did not touch upon plasticizer risks.

At the same time, the SFDA had also detected plasticizers in drug products and issued a ban on the use of eight contaminated products.

An internal document from the China Alcoholic Drinks Industry Association admitted that the association had been aware of liquor products containing plasticizers from June 2011, the newspaper reported.

The association then issued a notice on July 18, 2011, prohibiting liquor enterprises from using plasticizers during alcohol production, storage and sale and asked them to strengthen checks on plastic caps of bottles.

In addition to the loopholes found in product supervision, the inadequate standards for plasticizer detection applied in the industry were also cited as a reason for the plasticizer contamination problem.

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