HONG KONG, Dec 7 (Reuters) - The Hong Kong government has asked global fast food chain McDonalds Corp to withdraw a seasoning for its french fried potatoes because it could contain a banned artificial sweetener, a spokeswoman said on Sunday.

The government said it had discovered that the label for the chain's Honey BBQ seasoning mix listed the artificial sweetener stevioside, which is banned in Hong Kong, as an ingredient.

The U.S. National Cancer Institute says on its Web site that the main chemical in stevioside can be converted in a laboratory into a substance that alters genes. Further study is needed to determine whether the sweetener can cause cancer, it says.

"We are testing to see if it is a permitted sweetener or not. Legal action would be considered subject to the results of the test," a spokeswoman for the Hong Kong food and environmental hygiene department said.

McDonalds was not immediately available for comment but newspapres said that the company had since stopped using the powder.

In 2001 McDonalds apologised in a dispute over the use of beef extract in its french fries following legal action and protests from vegetarians.


http://www.forbes.com/markets/commo...rtr1171979.html

Somebody should let the idiots at Forbes know that Stevia IS NOT an ARTIFICIAL Sweetener...It's 100% Natural, as it is derived entirely from a naturally occuring plant drom South America...As for the legal questions, I don't understand it...From what I've read, China produces and uses alot of Stevia, just like their Neighbors in Japan. My understanding was Stevia was approved in China, Japan, Korea, and a number of other Asian countries. Hong Kong is now part of China, so Stevia should be an approved Sweetener there...or do they apply some kind of different rules in Hong Kong than they do on the Mainland, because of its history ?

BTW, I wish the FDA'd let them use Stevia in their foods over here...The stuff is a million times safer and healthier, not to mention better tasting, than Aspartame.

Yes, I noted the bit about "artificial sweetener" too You'd think they'd get it straight.

I wonder if it's a case that the seasoning didn't contain "stevia" .. it contained "stevioside" which is the chemical extract. Maybe that's the difference? ie, the whole herb is permitted, but not the extract.

Sort of like ma huang whole herb which is allowed - but its extract, ephedra, is now banned in many regions.


Doreen

I just submitted my comments, correcting their claim that Stevia is an Artificial Sweetener. I think they misreported and that what really happened is that Chineese Stevia, being notorious for containing undeclared artificial sweeteners and other fillers, that McDonalds may have used some Stevia that contained undeclared fillers, possibly artificial sweeteners. That is the only reason that they'd need to test to determine legality/non-legality. If the Stevia was the only thing in question, they could say just say whether or not Stevia was legal. Since there was mention of cancer causing gene mutation, something Stevia has never been indicted for, but Aspartame has, which is or used to be illegal in some Asian countries is the "Artificial Sweetener" they suspect was added to the Stevia, but not declared.

It appears that stevia was indeed pulled off the shelves in Hong Kong in 2002. Here's an article from Functional Foods magazine, from May '02.



Hong Kong Goes Sour On Sugar Substitute Use

by Shane Starling


5/1/2002 6:28:00 PM


More than 70 products that contain the unapproved natural sweetener stevioside have been withdrawn from the Hong Kong market.
HONG KONG—More than 70 products that contain the unapproved natural sweetener stevioside have been withdrawn from the Hong Kong market. The move follows the removal of about 60 similar products from Singaporean retail outlets, where stevioside is banned.

A spokesperson for Hong Kong's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) said the government authority ordered the products from shelves because "the safety of stevioside for human consumption has not yet been confirmed by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA)," the international body that evaluates food safety standards in Hong Kong and many other countries.

"So far manufacturers and retailers have complied with our request and voluntarily recalled products containing stevioside," he said.

In the meantime, manufacturers have been given the opportunity to present evidence illustrating the extract's safety to the FEHD.

"We are studying these materials in detail and will keep in touch with the Hong Kong Stevioside Association," a FEHD spokesperson said.

James Osugi, president of Skyland International Group, a Hong Kong-based stevia plant cultivator and extract processor, said he was baffled by the decision because most of the products in question have been readily available in Hong Kong for many years with no adverse health reports related to the sweetener's consumption.

The ban was also discriminatory, he noted, because stevioside and other extracts derived from the Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni plant were used in thousands of foods, often without well-defined labelling.

"If Hong Kong and Singapore are intent on pulling out all products containing stevioside, they had better shut down every Korean and Japanese restaurant since there are probably more than a thousand foods being served that contain a stevia blend flavour or ingredient," Osugi said. "We are considering a judiciary review to get this ruling overturned."

Nearly all of the products under scrutiny are manufactured in Japan, where stevia extracts are widely used and approved for use as food ingredients. They make up approximately 40 per cent of the Japanese sweetener market. The extracts are also popular in North and South Korea and legally available in about 20 other countries, mainly Latin America, where the stevia plant has been used to sweeten foods for more than 1,500 years.

In Europe, approval has been denied on the grounds of insufficient evidence to support stevia's safety. The Scientific Committee for Foods concluded that the "extract has the potential to produce adverse effects in the male reproductive system that could affect fertility." It added that the extract may cause damage to DNA.

In the US, stevia extracts are not approved for use as sweeteners, but can be consumed as dietary supplements.

Rob McCaleb, president of the Herb Research Foundation, said the ban is unlikely to affect stevia's status there.

"If there was some credible science that showed stevia was in fact hazardous, I would be concerned, but I haven't seen any, which is why I find this ban so disconcerting," he said.



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