Industrial salt sold as edible table salt

Sigh... and I thought evil-doers would learn something from the Melamine case and stop whatever adulteration they were doing and cover their tracks...

Police busted a factory in Jhongli City, Taiwan yesterday morning, for allegedly selling industrial salt as edible salt.

The investigation conducted jointly by the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors Office and the Department of Health revealed that the factory sold industrial salt as edible salt for at least the past three years.

Source from Food Safety Net

In the food industries, it is common to conduct microbial or heavy metal testings every biannually for common items like salt or spices, but for retail shops, they don't do testings like that. And it is despicable that suppliers exploit that point and sell them materials containing harmful substances.

Dear Hongyun,

Not saying that the article is incorrect but the conclusion may relate to meaning of "industrial". Even Codex only requires a minimum of 97% purity for food grade, although it obviously depends on what is in the other 3%.

http://www.codexalim.../3/CXS_150e.pdf.

The suggestion that "industrial" salt is typically yellowish is also questionable IMO, eg see

industrial_salt.png   54.63KB   19 downloads

Rgds / Charles.C

Hmm.. perhaps there are even cheaper grades of industrial salt that is slightly yellowish to off-white?

Like you mentioned, the edible salt, although it should have 97% purity, the edible grade is still dependable on the remaining 3% and should not exceed the max permitted levels for heavy metals.

Maybe there will be a follow up on this issue. Will update if I find them.

Dear All,

Looks like there are crooks all over the world,authorities in my country once busted a milk processor using formalin to preserve milk.

Regards,
Jeremy

Dear All,

Looks like there are crooks all over the world,authorities in my country once busted a milk processor using formalin to preserve milk.

Regards,
Jeremy

Embalming liquid as preservatives??

Did a check on Wiki and found that Indonesia and Vietnam had similar problems with Formaldehyde too.

Contaminant in Food Scandals have broken in both the 2005 Indonesia food scare and 2007 Vietnam food scare regarding the addition of formaldehyde to foods to extend shelf life. Foods known to be contaminated include noodles, salted fish, tofu, and rumors of chicken and beer. In humans, it is known to cause a number of detrimental effects and there is limited evidence of a carcinogenic effect.