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Healthy eating in Taiwan can be a problem. While looking for an alternative to imported peanut butter made in China, I considered a Taiwanese brand of sesame butter. Sesame butter is manufactured from sesame seeds, and has the advantage of being sugar free and high in calcium, iron, manganese, magnesium and phosphorus. Fufann Sesame Paste is hygienically produced (HACCP), has won awards for food quality, and is attractively packaged. It seems like a good product.

PROS
1] Geek appeal. The first thing I noticed about Fufann Sesame Paste was the use of Gwoyeu Romatzyh (tonal spelling of Mandarin) in the brand name: "fann" is 4th tone fan (four tones: fan, farn, faan, fann). I granted them five points for being wise enough to use the best romanization ever devised.

2] Hygiene. The second thing that caught my eye was the ISO-2200 HACCP certificate for food hygiene. That was enough for twenty more points.

3] The taste test will have to wait until I open the can

CONS
Brimming with virtue, I came home with my can of health-promoting sesame paste, but my joy soon turned to suspicion. Looking more closely at the label, I started to notice discrepancies.

1] Staring VERY closely at the label, I noticed that the ISO certificate was granted to the Jin Fang Foods Company, NOT to Fu Fann Enterprise Corporation. All right, perhaps they decided to change to a more auspicious name, or perhaps the manufacturer wants to reduce their tax liability. But maybe they just borrowed another company's certificate? I tried checking on Fufann's website at http://www.fufann.com.tw/, but I was greatly annoyed by their use of Javascript (blocked by default for security) and the Shockwave Flash interface. Why should I slow down my machine and put my computer at risk just to read a few lines of information?

2] Fufann claims to have received a Silver Award from Monde Selection in 2007, but when I checked the 2007 award page [http://www.monde-selection.com/en/Company_and_Awards/Special_Awards_and_Trophies/Trophies_2007/Special_Trophies_2007.asp], the only Taiwanese company that was listed was the Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Corporation, which won several awards for its beer and spirits. Furthermore, if one looks VERY closely at the award printed on the label, it turns out that the award was given for "Coconut Paste." I am willing to give Fufann the benefit of the doubt for the actual award (The Monde Selection web site is rather extensive; Perhaps I looked at the wrong page), but Coconut paste and Sesame Paste are NOT the same.

3] Fufann also claims to have received a German award for innovation in food production in 2003, but the image is too tiny to read, so I could not check out the details. Even so, the photo of the can on the award certificate doesn't look at all like the can I am holding in my hand. One more demerit.

4] Even if I could explain away the discrepancies in 1], 2] and 3], a very significant minus is the use of palm oil in this product. The English label is very misleading: it only says "coir oil." Google only shows 58 hits for "coir oil"; the majority are lists of fibers: "(cotton, coir, oil palm etc.), where two words just happen to be next to each other, The Chinese very clearly states "棕櫚油Tzongleu You," which is PALM oil, not COIR oil.

A CSPI report on palm oil entitled CRUEL OIL: How Palm Oil Harms Health, Rainforest & Wildlife [http://www.cspinet.org/new/pdf/palm_oil_final_5-27-05.pdf] states that: "not only does palm oil promote heart disease, but the vast plantations that grow oil palm trees have contributed to the destruction of the rainforest [sic] and wildlife of Southeast Asia. ... (from the Executive Summary)

"The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), founded in 1971, is a nonprofit health-advocacy organization. CSPI conducts innovative research and advocacy programs in the areas of nutrition, food safety, and alcoholic beverages and provides consumers with current information about their own health and well-being. ... CSPI does not accept funding from government or industry."

Bottom line: caveat emptor. I really wanted to like this product. I liked the name and it seemed very healthy. Unfortunately, I have too many doubts and misgivings. In the future, I should bring my magnifying glass to the supermarket. Tomorrow I will return my can of Fufann Sesame Paste for a refund. I don't want to take a risk with the health of our planet and my own body.

Update on Wednesday, December 31, 2008 at 07:45PM by Webmaster

I've been too busy to return my can of sesame paste to the supermarket, but it turns out that I didn't need to worry so much. My misgivings have been cleared up. Fufann Sesame Paste was awarded a Superior Taste Award in 2008 (scroll down until you reach "Fu Fann") and it doesn't really contain very much palm oil. I'll report on my own taste test after I make a new batch of bread.