Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration has published a report on the spot-check results of starchy food such as vermicelli, sweet potato noodles, bean jelly, and cold noodles, which shows that seven of the 121 samples contain excessive alum residues.
The substandard food include Longkou Vermicelli and Dragon Beard Sweet Potato Noodles made by Longkou Longxu Fensi Company Ltd. Local Chinese media reports that the main reason that some samples of Longkou Vermicelli are substandard is that they contain too much alum.
It is understood that alum, whose main constituent is aluminium potassium sulfate, must not be used in vermicelli, sweet potato noodles, or starch as over-consumption of aluminum may lead to presenile dementia.
In 2006, the Beijing Food Safety Administration issued an announcement saying the poisonous chemical sodium bisulfoxylate formaldehyde had been found in Longkou vermicelli produced by Yantai Deshengda Longkou Vermicelli Company and all the products produced by that company were banned from Beijing.
