A special CCTV2 program on April 16 and 17 about at least nine children who have died choking on jelly sweets since 2000 has aired calls for stricter standards on their size and packaging.
"Some warnings do exist on the packaging of 'Hwa Yuan' jelly sweets, but they made no sense to my young daughter," said Chen Junchao, father of a 19-month-old girl in Shanghai who choked to death on March 26.
All small jelly sweets of about 3 centimeters in diameter, which can be easily eaten by children, should be taken off the shelves, according to Chen, whose daughter died eating one manufactured by Shanghai Hwa Yuan Foods Co., Ltd. under the label of a Taiwan-based firm.
Four major Taiwan-based producers have suspended production of small jelly sweets, and have recalled about 50 tons of their products in the wake of the young girl's death, the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post reported.
"The design and production of jelly sweets should be supervised by a medical expert who has a good knowledge of healthcare," Hong Keming, a Shanghai Municipal People's Congress deputy, said last week.
Zhang Dezhi, from the China Consumer's Association, said he hoped production standards could be tightened and standardized.
According to sources from Shanghai's quality and technology supervision authority, current production standards for the sweets contain no clear guidelines for their size.
Two sets of standards issued by the Ministry of Health, the Standardization Administration of China and the National Light Industry Association only have requirements for ingredients, color, and microbes.
Zhang Lihong, a Shanghai quality and technology authority official, said that any standard five years old becomes subject to revision, and the current standards have been in place for four years, since November 2001.
Chen's daughter's death was the most recent in a series of accidents involving children aged 8 months to 10 years.
Such sweets have been banned in the US, Canada, some European countries and South Korea due to their hazardous nature to young children.
"Reducing the production of small jelly sweets and making them larger is supposed to be a development trend, which can help cut costs and threats to the consumer," said Huang Jinghong, division manager with BVI Xufuji International Food Corporation.
China has the largest market for jelly sweets in the world. There are approximately 300 manufacturers with a production volume of about 600,000 tons, worth nearly 5 billion yuan (US$603 million) annually.
(China Daily April 18, 2005)
