The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (July 26) that a sample of "peach red tea" and a sample of "lychee red tea", collected from a Taiwan-style drinks shop "Juicy Bar", were found to contain a plasticiser, di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP). The CFS has instructed the shop concerned to immediately stop sale of those two kinds of drinks.
The two samples were collected for testing while CFS staff were conducting surveillance checks at local retail outlets on the five categories of high-risk food products (sports drinks; fruit juice; tea drinks; fruit jam/fruit nectar or jelly; and food in tablet, capsule or powder form) and on other relevant food products in response to the plasticiser contamination incident in Taiwan.
A CFS spokesman said, "Test results showed that the peach red tea sample and the lychee red tea sample contained DEHP at levels of 7.9 parts per million (ppm) and 3.1 ppm respectively, exceeding the action level of 1.5 ppm adopted by the CFS.
"Dietary exposure estimation on the peach red tea sample showed that the exposure to DEHP by both average consumers (i.e. daily consumption of about 250ml of the drink) and high consumers (i.e. daily consumption of about 460ml of the drink) would exceed the safety reference value, i.e. the tolerable daily intake (TDI) of 0.025mg/kg of body weight under the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, which may pose a risk to human health upon long-term consumption."
Regarding the lychee red tea sample, dietary exposure estimation revealed that the exposure to DEHP from daily consumption by even high consumers would not exceed the TDI under the WHO guidelines.
The spokesman said, "Even though dietary exposure estimation shows no health concern from consuming the lychee red tea sample, the CFS has instructed the shop to stop sale of those two kinds of drinks as a precautionary measure."
The CFS in the meantime is tracing the ingredient suppliers of the drinks and will take samples for testing.
The spokesman added, "The CFS will closely follow up the case and take samples of other similar products available in the market for tests. If any food product is found to be tainted with plasticisers, it will take necessary follow-up actions to safeguard public health.
(Reprinted from HKSAR Government web page:
http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201107/26/P201107260206.htm )