Kementerian arah tarik balik Tapioca Starch Pearls

KUALA LUMPUR: Kementerian Kesihatan mengarahkan pengedar Tapioca Starch Pearls yang diimport dari Syarikat Wang Tai di Taiwan, menarik balik produk makanan tersebut dari pasaran negara ini dan melupuskannya kerana mengandungi Asid Malik (Maleic Acid).

Pengarah Kanan Keselamatan dan Kualiti Makanan kementerian itu, Noraini Mohd Othman berkata sehingga kini, sebanyak 66 sampel produk makanan yang merangkumi tapioca balls atau tapioca pearls, mi dan mihun kering dan tapioca starch yang diambil di pasaran tempatan telah dianalisis.

Beliau berkata keputusan analisis menunjukkan 65 sampel didapati tidak mengandungi asid tersebut.

"Walaubagaimanapun, pengguna yang telah memakan produk tersebut sebelum ini tidak perlu bimbang kerana pengambilan Asid Malik sekali sekala pada paras rendah tidak memudaratkan kesihatan," katanya dalam kenyataan di sini.

Tapioca Starch Pearls biasanya digunakan sebagai makanan dalam minuman.

Dengan perkembangan itu, jumlah produk makanan yang digantung pengimportan oleh kementerian itu kini berjumlah 16 produk.

Katanya kementerian memantau rapi produk makanan diimport dari Taiwan yang berada di pasaran tempatan dan orang ramai boleh mendapatkan maklumat lanjut mengenainya dengan menghubungi 03-888 33652 atau 03-888 33653 atau melayari laman web kementerian.



- BERNAMA

At least 42 killed in Xiamen, China bus inferno

BEIJING: At least 42 people died Friday when fire engulfed a bus in minutes during rush hour in the Chinese city of Xiamen, state media reported, the country's deadliest road accident in recent years.

Images on Internet news portals showed a burnt-out shell was all that remained of the vehicle, which caught fire in the city, in the southeastern province of Fujian, at about 6:30pm (1030 GMT), the official Xinhua news agency said, citing local officials.

Online pictures also showed survivors with bloodstained clothes sitting stunned, and thick, black plumes of smoke rising from the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) vehicle as it burned on an elevated road.

Xinhua reported 42 fatalities and another 33 passengers injured in the blaze while the Fujian Daily newspaper said 48 people had died.

Some online reports said about 100 people were on the bus, which was on fire for 10 minutes before it was destroyed by a series of explosions.

Witnesses said ambulances took away "many" injured people from the site, Xinhua said. One passenger told the news agency that she had smelled gasoline before the blaze quickly engulfed the vehicle.

A local official said the bus caught fire 500 metres (yards) from the Jinshan bus stop, which appears to be in a residential area of the city.

The accident was under investigation, Xinhua added. China's roads are highly dangerous, with traffic laws and safety widely flouted.

In 2011, more than 62,000 people died in traffic accidents, state media said, citing police figures.

Last August, at least 36 people died when a double-decker sleeper bus slammed into the rear of a methanol tanker and burst into flames, China's worst traffic accident in more than a year.

That accident, in northern Shaanxi province, was the deadliest since a fire on an overcrowded sleeper bus carrying flammable materials killed 41 passengers in central China in July in 2011, according to the country's work safety watchdog.

More recently, a fireworks-laden truck exploded as it crossed a bridge in central China in February, killing 26 people as the structure collapsed and vehicles plummeted to the ground.

Although accidents on China's popular urban bus network are less common, many buses are crowded with both standing and sitting passengers.

BRT networks, which now operate in many of China's heavily congested cities, provide faster bus travel by using roads designated for public transport.

- AFP