TFDA orders recalls by importers of suspect red yeast rice from Japan

Taipei, March 26 (CNA) The Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) has identified two Taiwanese companies that imported potentially suspect red yeast rice from a Japanese drugmaker and has ordered them to recall products made with the ingredient.

The two companies, New Taipei-based SHS Biotech Co. Ltd. and Taichung-based Healthtake Corporation, have been instructed to recall their products that contain the red yeast rice imported from Kobayashi Pharmaceuticals, the TFDA said Monday.

The two companies, which make dietary supplements, have imported 56 shipments of the red yeast rice weighing a total of 11,115 kilograms since Jan. 1, 2022, according to TFDA Deputy Director-General Lin Chin-fu (林金富).

The recall comes after the Osaka-based drugmaker announced on March 22 that its nutritional supplements containing red yeast rice may have caused health issues.

A total of 13 people in Japan, including six who required hospitalization, reported kidney problems after using the supplements, the company said.

Red yeast rice is a bright reddish purple fermented rice that acquires its color from being cultivated with the mold monascus purpureus.

Yen Tzung-hai (顏宗海), an attending physician in the Department of Nephrology at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Linkou, said the fermentation process of red yeast rice could produce citrinin, a toxin that could cause nephrotoxicity if consumed in huge quantities.

Noting that the case in Japan is still being investigated, Yen said health supplements containing red yeast rice are commonly consumed by people in Taiwan and should be relatively safe, given that the TFDA has not detected citrinin in tests over the past few years.

In a separate statement Monday, Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp. (TTL) said the red yeast rice used in its products is sourced entirely in Taiwan and not from Kobayashi Pharmaceuticals.

Its beverage and food products do not contain citrinin and have all received Taiwan Accreditation Foundation (TAF) certification, it said.