They come in a tasty blend of sweet, sour and salty. They can also be deadly. Yes, craving for that piece of dried sour plum can kill you, albeit slowly. Many types of dried fruits imported from China , Taiwan and other Asian countries have been found to contain high levels of lead. On Thursday, the Government banned 18 important brands of dried fruits found to have lead content of between 0.11 and 30.3 parts per million (ppm) or milligram (mg)/kilogramme (kg). Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said only dried fruit products other than these brands would be allowed to be sold in the country. "Under Regulation 38 of the Food Regulations 1985, the level of lead accepted is two parts per million. Action will be taken if the lead content exceeds the amount," he said. Those who distribute food products deemed to be harmful to health can be charged under Section 13(1) of the Food Act 1983. They can also be fined up to RM100,000 or jailed up to maximum of 10 years or both if found guilty. Liow said the ministry would ensure that the brands of banned dried fruit do not enter the country. Lead is a metal that can be absorbed into the body over time. Excess consumption, especially by the young, can lead to serious health problems, including delayed mental and physical development and learning deficiencies. Many types of imported fried fruits countries have been found to contain high levels of lead Tasty but deadly http://dailychilli.com/news/%C2%AD267-tasty-but-deadly Lead also poses risks to pregnant women and infants. Malaysias move to bar the 18 brands of dried fruits comes in the wake of last Fridays move by the United States Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) advisory against eating dried fruits imported from Asia. Testing results in Texas found that dried plums and products containing dried plums contained lead as much as 300 times the acceptable level. The FDA do not have lead limits specifically for prunes, but the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has advised avoiding consumption of any amount of lead. The warning, however, did not apply to prunes from the US .
do u know what brands are banned? an i watched something similar about the lead thing, only it was found in chocolates instead. but this was on a CSI episode ><"
These two pics were what I got from my friend's email. oh .. here's more: Manufacturer/Distributor on Package Product Name(s) on Package Alamo Packing The Original Chinese Candy,Dried Plums with Pickle and Lemon, Saladitos Con Pepino Y Limon Almax International ItsFruit Chinese Style Dried Prune, Saladito Bolner’s Fiesta Products Saladitos 6 Count Casa De Dulce Salted Plum Suckers Cheung Fat Plum wrapped “candy” (Packaging predominately in Asian foreign language – blue and white bag with candy wrapped in red and white) Dollar Value Distributor Saladitos, Salted Prunes Hinojosa Brothers (H.B. Wholesale) Salados, Salted dried plums Kam Tai Houg Hua Ho Ying Tzu (Packaging in Asian foreign language) Little Gregory Chinese Candy Packaging also contains individual packets of Limon and La Sabrozita Mexican Products & Spices 7 Salted Plums, 7 Saladitos Produce Plus Saladitos Chinese Candy Roxy Trading Co. Preserved Liquoriced Prune (heart shaped box) Roxy Trading Co. Preserved Plums/Preserved Salted PrunesPreserved Plums/Preserved Red Prunes Sanh Yuan Enterprise Preserved Fruit Pitted Prunes Tang Hoi Moon Chan Pui Mui Preserved Plum Wan Tom Food Co. LTD Ka Po Preserved Plum
I used to like those Wa Mui with the toffee on top. Turn out they had some sort of dangerous ingredient, as with all other confectionery.
