People choose dried fruits for snacks and think they are all natural and healthy, but in reality it can be just the opposite.
A Consumer Council study on 50 dried fruit products available in the market showed that consumers having such snacks may ingest a mix of food additives like preservatives and sweeteners which they are not aware of, as some are not listed or disclosed on the labels.
Food Additives
Of the 50 samples tested, including dried mangoes(12), kumquats(17), prunes/plums (13) and lemons (8), with or without packaging, all were found to contain at least one type of preservatives like sulphur dioxide, sorbic acid and benzoic acid.
The quantity of preservatives can vary widely between different products of the same fruit type, for instance, the sulphur dioxide of dried mangoes detected varied as much as 20 times from 33 ppm to 712 ppm.
Though of low toxicity, sulphur dioxide can cause allergic reactions like asthmatic attacks, headache or nausea in some people sensitive to the chemicals.
Apart from preservatives, also present in the samples were sweeteners like saccharin and aspartame.
Saccharin was detected in the majority (34) of the samples, with amounts varied from 100 to 8,300 ppm, mostly in dried kumquats (16), dried lemons (5) and dried prunes/plums (13) while aspartame, with quantity ranging from 140 to 8,900 ppm, was found in 11 dried prune/plum samples. Both are permitted sweeteners in Hong Kong.
The two artificial sweeteners had been the subject of concerns due to possible adverse health effects.
Saccharin has been linked to bladder cancer in some preliminary studies, but further animal testing found that its carcinogenicity in animal was inconclusive. Though it was evaluated as safe by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), some countries like the United States only temporarily permitted its use in specified foods.
Aspartame poses danger to people suffering from phenylketonuria (PKU), whose bodies are unable to properly metabolize phenylalanine, a breakdown product of aspartame. The sugar substitute can cause harm to those PKU sufferers if phenylalanine in their body builds up to such high level as to cause brain damage.
Consumers should keep an eye on the portion when having dried fruit snacks, so as to avoid an excessive intake of food additives and nutrients. For the sample of dried mango with the highest amount of sulphur dioxide (712 mg/kg), an adult of 60kg body weight having 10 to 11 slices (about 59 grams) of the sample could result in ingestion of approaching the upper limit of JECFA's acceptable daily intake (ADI) of sulphur dioxide.
Similarly, an adult weighed 60kg eating 14 to 15 pieces of dried prunes/plums (about 36 grams) of the sample with the highest amount of saccharin (8,300 mg/kg) could be ingesting an amount of saccharin approaching the upper limit of JECFA's ADI of the substance. Consumers should also be wary of the relatively high salt and sugar content of these dried fruit snack products.
Hygiene Condition
None of the pathogenic bacteria like Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus or Shigella was detected in the samples. But half (25) of the samples (12 dried mangoes, 3 dried kumquats, 2 dried prune/plums and 8 dried lemons) were found to contain aerobic plate count ranging from 10 to 4,200 colony-forming unit (cfu) per gram.
5 samples (1 dried kumquat and 4 dried lemons) were detected to contain mould, ranging from 10 to 100 cfu per gram.
All the aerobic plate count of the samples are satisfactory according to the Microbiological Guidelines for Ready-to-eat Food of the Centre of Food Safety. As bacteria and mould are common in the environment, consumers are advised to store the dried fruits in a cool and dry place to prevent microbial growth.
Food Labelling
Test findings showed that some food additives are not accurately reflected or fully disclosed on the packages or labels.
The preservative of benzoic acid, which was present in all samples of dried prunes/plums with amounts ranging from 11.3 to 95.6 ppm, was not labelled on any of the pre-packaged samples. Some agents claimed that the additives not labelled are naturally occurred, as some fruits like prunes/plums also contained benzoic acid.
Also missing on the label of a dried prune/plum product was the saccharin used, the product was found to contain high quantity (4,000 ppm) of the sweetener.
Customers may find it hard to make informed decision by reading the labels as some additives are not accurately listed. A dried kumquat product wrongly displayed the functional class of the "sweetener" saccharin 954 as "anti-oxidant".
Two samples - a dried lemon and a dried kumquat - had listed preservative benzoic acid and colour dye Sunset Yellow in their respective labels, but such substances were not detected in the test.
While some preservatives may naturally occur in fruits, but for artificial sweeteners like saccharin and aspartame, it is questionable that their presence in the samples can be explained by carry-over principle given that they are not natural substances and the quantity detected was not in small amount.
The Consumer Council is of the view that manufacturers have the responsibility to list out clearly and accurately the ingredients in the food, so as to enable consumers, particularly those who have food allergies, to make informed choices.
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