JRC tests for contaminated sports drinks from Taiwan

The JRC has developed three new methods to detect an illegal clouding agent which can be found in sports drinks imported from Taiwan.

In late May, Taiwan notified that significant amounts of phthalates were illegally added to certain categories of sports drinks. These chemicals could affect reproductive performance and fertility, and have been linked to developmental problems with children.

Under a request from the Commission's Directorate-General for Health and Consumers, the JRC developed and validated three new testing methods that allow the substance to be rapidly and accurately detected.

The methods are freely available on the JRC website and will facilitate the work of laboratories testing the suspected products in the EU and world-wide. Testing laboratories will be able to submit their feedback on the methods to the JRC for analysis and improvement.

The Taiwanese Food and Drug Administration has published the names of 879 products of more than 300 producers that contained high amounts of phthalates. More than 200 products from 34 producers were exported to 22 countries. These include some EU Member States, in particular Germany and the UK, where some products were withdrawn from the market.

Source: European Commission, Joint Research Centre