Friday June 30, 2006
Noodles high in boric acid
BALIK PULAU: Noodles in Penang and Selangor have high content of hazardous boric acid, Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek warned.
A random survey carried out in April showed that Selangor topped the list with 19% of samples containing dangerously high levels of boric acid, followed by Penang (16%), he said.
Dr Chua said hokkien mee contained 33% boric acid, wantan mee (18%) and yellow mee (6%).
Stressing that high boric acid content in food could cause nausea and lead to death and kidney failure, he warned that stern action would be taken against noodle manufacturers who flout the regulation.
Under the Food Act, those liable can be fined up to RM20,000 and be jailed two years.
“We are taking stern action. We have seized the products containing excessive boric acid and initiated court action,” he said after visiting Balik Pulau Hospital here yesterday.
“The highest cases were found in Klang, Selangor, and in Kepala Batas, Sungai Dua and Butterworth in Penang.”
Dr Chua announced that he would approve RM600,000 for the hospital to purchase additional facilities such as haemodialysis and X-ray machines.
He said the Cabinet had directed his ministry and the Higher Education Ministry to form a committee to improve the Teaching Hospital programme to reduce cost of training medical students overseas.
“We want to include all 131 hospitals in the programme. Now only 98 hospitals are involved,” he said.
“The committee will look into how to make full use of local specialists and experts to train medical students.
“The Government spends RM330mil a year to train medical students overseas. It costs a student about RM1mil to study medicine in Ireland, and RM700,000 in Australia.”
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