BANGKOK, Jan 18 (TNA) – All seaweed snack products sold
in Thailand are found to have tainted with lead and cadmium, the Foundation for
Consumers reports.
The Thai consumer rights group announced Friday that all 13
samples collected from seaweed snacks had unsafe cadmium level and 11 contained
high amount of lead.
The levels of contaminants exceeded Thai Community Product
Standard, said Saree Ongsomwang, secretary of the Foundation, in a press conference
on Friday.
The Community Product Standard allowed only 1 mg. of lead
and 0.2 mg. of cadmium per 1 kg. of food, she said. But all 13 products contained toxic
substances over the safe levels, added Saree.
Lead posed health threat to consumers, especially children,
leading to neurological impairment while exposure to cadmium could cause cancer
as well as kidney and bone damage in humans, she said.
Furthermore, all of the products contained sodium higher
than the amount recommended by the World Health Organization, she said.
The Foundation called on the Food and Drug Administration to
improve its own standard on these toxic chemicals to apply on food
manufacturers.
Other than seaweed products retailed in stores, there were
also some brands without product labels in Thai that had by sold online, Saree
said. (TNA)
