Undisciplined Formula: Food Industry, Technology, and Regulation in Taiwan Plasticizer Event

• Main Authors: Tsung-Yen Tsou, 鄒宗晏
• Other Authors: Hung-Jen Yang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/uy9s4n

碩士 === 國立陽明大學 === 科技與社會研究所 === 107 === Why did industrial chemicals adulterate food additives? Based on this question, this study takes the plasticizer event in Taiwan in 2011 as an example. In the past, the related researches on this food adulteration cases were mainly based on toxicology, cross-country law comparison, and risk society research. Different from the approaches above, this research is based on the social construction of technology (SCOT) and applied it as the main conceptual framework. Thus, this study can highlight the role of artifacts, relevant social groups, and industries in the food safety crisis in Taiwan. Through the perspective of SCOT, this paper is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on the soft drink industry in Taiwan and the role of clouding agents. The natural juices, which standards were based on European and American juice products, set off a boom in Taiwan in the late 1970s. Although the juice with higher fruit nectar performed poorly in soft drink market, the thick taste and turbid appearance had become the standard for manufacturers to produce juice. Hence, this historical background increased the chance of using clouding agents in fruit-flavored drinks. In the second part, the manufacturing process of plasticized clouding agent illustrates the state of industrial local knowledge. Analyzing with the emulsion flavor technology frame, we have been able to label the plasticized clouding agents as a conventional invention under the existing technology frame, as well as a toxic invention that causes harm to the human body. Since most of food flavors in Taiwan have depended on imports, relevant social groups are small and weak. Therefore, compared with the United States and Japan, there are only a few manufacturers in Taiwan have their unique flavor formula, and most of them keep the formula underground. The third part, we explore the way flavor manufacturers got their access to plasticizers, as well as the boundaries they had crossed. Manufacturers of plasticized clouding agents relied on the assistance of wholesalers of chemicals and also relied on their own technique to produce plasticized clouding agents. The existing thought style in the flavoring industry, which includes flavor imaginary, allowed manufacturers to overlook the potential risk of the human hazard of the plasticized clouding agent.