Malaysia eases restrictions on Taiwanese food imports

Following the contamination of exported foods with DEHP last year, Malaysia had enforced strict border controls on imported food products from Taiwan. Malaysian officials have announced that border controls on Taiwanese food imports will be lifted as of 1 March 2012, with the exception of cookies and fruit drinks.

These two categories will still be strictly monitored as the Malaysian authorities still hold concerns about their contamination with the plasticiser. The monitoring stringency will be reviewed on 16 March 2012.

Malaysia is the last of Taiwan’s five major overseas markets to relax restrictions on Taiwanese food imports; Singapore, China, Hong Kong and South Korea have all released Taiwan from certification restrictions that stipulated all Taiwanese food must provide official certification that it is plasticiser free.

Taiwan has lifted its own certification restrictions, with food products no longer requiring plasticiser-free certification after 1 March 2012.

On 23 May 2011, Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration announced that several sports drinks had tested positive for the plasticiser DEHP. It was revealed later that several manufacturers had used clouding agents containing DEHP as a way to cut costs.

DEHP has been found to affect the livers, kidneys, reproduction and development of experimental animals and has been named as a possible carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.