Since early June five kinds of food products sold in hypermarkets (sports drinks, fruit juices, jams, tea drinks and health foods) have been required to have certification that they don't contain plasticizers such as DEHP. The photo shows a consumer examining beverage safety certifications. (Jimmy Lin)

Since it was first revealed in May that plasticizers had been added to food products made in Taiwan, the scandal-the first involving plasticizers in food-has only snowballed. The scope of tainted products has expanded from sports drinks, fruit juices, health foods and jams to bread, cough syrup, perfume, and cosmetics. As the range of victims has grown from buyers in Taiwan to consumers overseas, the reputation of Taiwanese food manufacturers has suffered.

Export markets for Taiwanese food such as Hong Kong, mainland China, Southeast Asia, the United States and elsewhere have begun to demand inspection certifications for food produced in Taiwan, creating an extra burden for international trade.

It was merely by accident that the harmful practices of unscrupulous food industry producers came to light: A Ms. Yang in the Department of Health's Food and Drug Administration was routinely testing probiotic powders to see if they contained diet medicines. Much to her surprise, she found that the powders contained industrial-use plasticizers at levels exceeding 600 parts per million. At that concentration, a single dose contained an amount of plasticizer that was more than twice the recommended daily limit for infants.

The Department of Health (DOH) immediately notified prosecutors, and they tracked the problem to clouding agents made by Yushen Food, to which the company had illegally added the plasticizer diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP). Prosecutors then discovered that Pin Han Perfumery, another major supplier to the food and cosmetics industry, had also added plasticizers to its clouding agents. The authorities immediately detained the CEOs of those companies and seized company property. In mid-June prosecutors asked for prison terms of over 20 years for those responsible, as well as NT$200 million in fines for Yushen.