Public kept in dark over soy milk scare

Source: Sunday Star Times 14 May 2006, By EMILY WATT

A soy milk with over 1000 times more iodine than other brands left five people sick, and many more may have been unaware they were ill.

Authorities did not alert the public to the health risk once it was discovered, despite the likelihood others were similarly poisoned.

The New Zealand Food Standards Authority (NZFSA) said the manufacturers had changed the soy milk formula and it no longer posed a health risk. The authority is refusing to identify the brand.

Green MP Sue Kedgley criticised the secrecy surrounding the case and said it raised concerns about the safety of our food.

A scientific study confirmed the popular brand of soy milk caused thyrotoxicosis, an enlarged thyroid gland, in five men in 2004.

Thyrotoxicosis is caused by excess iodine and causes dizziness, high heart rate and anxiety. If left undiagnosed, it can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and death.

The scientists estimated the men were consuming up to 2.9mg of iodine each day - nearly three times the safe limit of 1.1mg a day.

The iodine levels were not listed on the nutritional information on the package, but kelp, the cause of the high iodine, was listed as an ingredient.

Southland director of public health Derek Bell, who co-authored the study, confirmed it was likely other soy milk drinkers in New Zealand had fallen ill but had gone undiagnosed. "I would find it difficult to believe there weren't cases in Australia too."

Bell's report, published recently in the Australia and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, said the link between the soy milk and the thyrotoxicosis cases would have gone undetected if doctors had not found the cluster of cases in Queenstown related to the same brand of soy milk, "widely distributed throughout Australia and New Zealand".

The case raised concerns about public health practice and food safety in New Zealand and Australia, the scientists concluded.

NZSFA was aware of the high iodine levels before the thyrotoxicosis was diagnosed, having randomly tested four brands of soy milk.

The 2003-4 Total Diet Survey reported the product had 9.140mg/kg of iodine, well over 1000 times higher than the 0.008mg/ kg of other brands surveyed.

The finding was not widely publicised, and at the time the NZFSA said the manufacturer responded quickly when alerted to the problem and changed the formula. NZFSA standards group head Tim Knox said the authority noted the high iodine levels months before the health problems were identified, and made a "risk-based decision not to publicise the finding. We were confident and happy that we dealt with the issue appropriately at the time".

It was "a possibility other soy milk drinkers had fallen ill, but by the time the risks were known, the product had been changed and no longer posed a health risk".

Kedgley criticised the NZFSA for down-playing food safety risks and failing to protect consumers. "The absolute minimum (action) was to inform consumers, but I would have thought probably you would recall the product."