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Jakarta. Consumer advocates criticized health officials on Wednesday for rushing to defend the safety of Indomie instant noodles in the wake of a ban in Taiwan without first conducting proper scientific tests.

“Following the food scare in Taiwan, the food and drug agencies in Singapore and Brunei immediately conducted tests to ensure the safety of the noodles.

"But Indonesia, where these products came from, didn’t even bother,” Marius Widjajarta, chairman of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation for Health (YPPKI), said on Wednesday.

Last week, the Taiwan Health Department banned Indomie instant noodles, produced by Indofood CBP Sukses Makmur, claiming they contained excessive levels of the preservative benzoic acid, or methyl p-hydroxybenzoate, as well as a parahydroxy benzoate, a similar preservative.

Kustantinah, head of Indonesia’s Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM), on Monday said the noodles were safe because the accompanying soy sauce contained only 250 milligrams of benzoic acid per kilogram.

According to the Codex Alimentarius Commission, an international food standards body, the maximum limit for the preservative is 1,000 milligrams per kilogram.

In a press release on Wednesday, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore said tests had not revealed the presence of benzoic acid in Indomie Mee Goreng instant noodles sold in the city-state.

“If only we conducted a similar test before we announced that the noodles were safe, there would be no public confusion,” Marius said. “But if the government continues to be so quick to make claims, it will lose the public’s trust.”

He said the BPOM’s claims that the noodles were safe carried little weight because they were not backed by scientific data.

He said two types of tests were needed to ensure a food’s safety — a library test, or the test conducted when a product was registered, and a laboratory test.

“As far as I know, Indonesia only performed the library test, determining the standard level for the substance in theory, while laboratory tests, which aim to find out the risk of daily intake, were never performed,” he said.

Marius said the lack of laboratory tests meant Indonesia was in no position to defend the safety of its products.

He added that the BPOM should not rely solely on the CAC’s standards to quell public fears.

“This loophole will always be used by competitors from other countries to bash our products because we can’t even defend them scientifically,” he said.

Roy Alexander Sparingga, deputy of food safety and hazardous substances at BPOM, said that the agency did not need to conduct the tests because benzoic acid was long known to be safe as a preservative as long as it did not exceed the maximum limit.

“Taiwan also uses preservatives. Perhaps not methyl, but ethyl or other kinds, but in the end they are all preservatives, they are basically the same, safe to consume at a rational level,” he said.

Some scientists say that consuming benzoic acid in large quantities can result in nausea, deterioration of kidney function and possibly metabolic acidosis, a potentially fatal condition.

Fransiscus Welirang, director of Indofood Sukses Makmur, has denied Taiwan’s claims, saying that Indomie has complied with all necessary regulations.

He also suggested that the Indomie noodles in Taiwan might have been intended for other markets and illegally imported to the country, which has higher food-safety standards than other countries.

Fransiscus said all of Indofood Sukses Makmur’s products were in full compliance with the guidelines set by the CAC. However, he acknowledged that Taiwan had independent guidelines.

Titi Sekarindah, a nutritionist at Pertamina General Hospital in Jakarta, said benzoic acid was not harmful if consumed in moderation.