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Deaths spark calls for better safety methods
By Liu Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-04-18 05:47
More detailed production standards for popular kid's snack jelly sweets, in
terms of their size and packaging, are being called for after the recent deaths
of several children through choking.
All small jelly sweets of about 3 centimetres in diameter, which can be
easily eaten by children, should be taken off the shelves, said Chen Junchao,
father of a 19-month-old victim in Shanghai.
Jelly sweets, manufactured by Shanghai Hwa Yuan Foods Co Ltd under the label
of a Taiwan-based firm, led to the death of Chen's daughter on March 26.
Medical examinations showed his daughter was "choked to death," and suffered
severe cerebral anoxemia after her trachea was jammed for several hours.
"Some safe eating warnings do exist on the packaging of 'Hwa Yuan' jelly
sweets, but they made no sense to my young daughter," said Chen.
According to him, very few sweets brands print warnings on their packaging,
which poses a great threat to infants.
Four major Taiwan-based sweets producers have suspended production of small
jelly sweets, and have recalled about 50 tons of their products in the wake of
the young girl's death, the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post reported.
Industry observers and parents are calling for the revision of jelly sweets'
producing standards.
"The design and production of the jelly sweets should be combined with the
supervision of a medical expert, who has a good knowledge of healthcare," said
Hong Keming, a deputy to the Shanghai's Municipal People's Congress, last week.
Zhang Dezhi, from the China Consumer's Association, said he hoped production
standards could be tightened and standardized.
But according to sources with the Shanghai quality and technology supervision
authority, current production standards for the sweets contain no clear
guidelines for their size.
Two sets of standards issued by the Ministry of Health, the Standardization
Administration of China and the National Light Industry Association only have
requirements on ingredients, colour, and microbes.
Zhang Lihong, an official with the Shanghai quality and technology authority,
said that any standard five years old becomes subject to revision.
The current standards have been in place for four years, since November 2001,
she said.
Chen's daughter's death was the most recent in a series of similar accidents
among children aged from 8 months to 10 years from urban and rural China.
Such small jelly sweets have been banned from shelves in the United States,
Canada, some European countries and South Korea due to their hazardous nature to
young children.
Small jelly sweets are not a good profit generator, but their high market
share convinces producers to keep them in the shops.
"Reducing the production of small jelly sweets and making them larger is
supposed to be a development trend, which can help cut costs and threats to the
consumer," said Huang Jinghong, division manager with BVI Xufuji International
Food Corporation.
(China Daily 04/18/2005 page2)
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