Food safety authority faces flak for slow response to health threat

SEOUL, Oct. 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's food safety authorities came under attack Thursday for responding poorly to health threats caused by substandard imports.

Lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties derided Korea Food and Drug
Administration (KFDA) officials for the recent melamine scare that caused
consumers to stay away from confectioneries and triggered concern over the safety
of baby formula.
Melamine is a nitrogen-based chemical that can pose serious health risks if taken
in large quantities. If added to dairy-based food items the nitrogen can
artificially increase protein levels, translating into higher dairy prices.
Chinese health officials have said the use of melamine in dairy products has
killed at least four infants and left 54,000 others ailing from kidney stones or
other illnesses.
Rep. Choi Young-hee said at the parliamentary audit that Seoul acted in a
disorderly fashion when reports about the Chinese melamine surfaced.
"Unlike the U.S. federal government that worked with local authorities to recall
and destroy possibly harmful food and ingredients immediately after the threat
was discovered, Seoul relied solely on the understaffed KFDA to deal with the
situation," the Democratic Party lawmaker said.
This view was echoed by Rep. Yoon Seok-yong of the ruling Grand National Party
said that the government was too slow in setting safety standards for harmful
chemicals.
"The U.S. moved to set up melamine safety standards immediately after the threat
was announced while Seoul has yet to follow such steps," he said.
Others like Yoo Jae-jung said that KFDA was not doing enough to recall possible
harmful food.
The GNP lawmaker said that of the 1,340 tons of melamine tainted food imported,
only 238 tons were collected as of Tuesday, which is a very poor recall
percentage.
Lawmakers said that because the country is moving more food from abroad every
year it is imperative for inspections to become more effective to block the
circulation of harmful food.
The KFDA, meanwhile, said in a report submitted ahead of the audit that 332 tons
of Chinese food that had higher than permitted levels of chemical pesticides had
been detected since 2004.
It said that among the chemicals found there were banned products including DDT,
acetochlor, endosulfan and parathion-methyl.
The agency under the health and welfare ministry said that starting in the second
half of 2010, all original equipment manufacturing (OEM) food products sold in
the country will have to notify consumers with lables placed on the front of the
product.
"The OEM labels must be of a certain size with the name of the country and
company that manufactured it," a official said.
The move comes because the 10 types of food that have been found to have traces
of melamine were OEM products made in China.