[News Today] Banned substance found in 87% of toothpaste

[LEAD]
Aekyung's 2080 toothpaste products were recently recalled after a problematic substance was detected.

Authorities say that after testing all recalled batches, about 87% were found to contain the substance.

[REPORT]
There are six types of 2080 brand toothpaste products recently recalled by Aekyung Industrial Company.

They are all made in China and contain triclosan, a banned substance in Korea.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety retrieved and tested 870 batch numbers across six toothpaste products and found triclosan in 87% of the samples.

This means roughly nine out of 10 products distributed in the market contained the substance.

It has been confirmed that an outsourced manufacturer in China used triclosan when sterilizing its equipment.

Shin Jun-soo / Ministry of Food and Drug Safety
Traces of the substance got mixed into the toothpaste because the amount was varied.

Since early 2023, some 29 million of the toothpastes in question have been distributed.

However the products inspected contained no more than 0.16% of triclosan.

Experts note that a figure below 0.3% is not harmful to people's health.

Prof. Kim Kyu-bong / Dankook University
At the current level, carcinogenic probabilities are believed to be low.

The ministry said it will proceed with administrative measures as Aekyung did not abide by recall procedures.

It was December 19 when the company discovered the substance through internal testing.

Under regulation, it needed to present a recall plan within five days but that came 12 days past the legal deadline.

The ministry said it will make quality tests mandatory before toothpastes are sold and also establish legal grounds to punish those selling harmful products.

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