Taipei Times
Date: Oct 12, 2019
By: Lo Chi and Sherry Hsiao / Staff reporter, with staff writer
The Executive Yuan’s Consumer Protection Committee has warned people not to drink directly from
disposable cups sealed with plastic, as the ink near its rim might not be safe to ingest.Since the Environmental Protection Administration’s ban on single-use plastic straws at dine-in venues went into effect on July 1, many people have started to drink directly from disposable cups after peeling off the plastic seal, the department said.
However, most of the disposable cups that stores use to serve drinks are printed with bright colors and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has no regulations on the ink that may appear on the edges of those cups, committee officer Wang Te-ming (王德明) said on Monday.
To protect consumer safety, the FDA should ensure that the local health departments provide guidance to drinkware manufacturers to reduce the use of ink near the rims of the cups, he said.
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