From Clean Labels, Mercury Testing to BPA Free: Denis Asia Pacific’s Commitment to Healthier Food
Denis Asia Pacific seeks to offer our consumers tremendous benefits that go beyond tightening world regulations and consumers’ normal expectations.
Clean labels
As a food manufacturer and marketeer, we aim to produce and distribute products which are as close to 100% natural as possible. We use additives only when it is not possible to do without.
Our promise is that our flagship trademark Ayam Brand? should be synonymous with clean labels, which means:
In 2018, we reinforced the above requirements with a new policy, named “Green Labels”. Depending on the market, around 350 to 400 additives are legally authorized to be used for food. We have reduced the number of additives down to around one hundred, selecting only those additives with a pristine reputation. With this initiative, we believe that we are paving the way for mass market food which is more natural, safer and healthier.
Mercury in canned tuna
Canned tuna stands as a cornerstone within our product line-up. We enjoy significant market shares in Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei. Among tuna consumers, concerns regarding mercury levels in pelagic fish remain of prime importance.
We view it as our responsibility to keep consumers informed and to provide them with complete peace of mind when they consume tuna products bearing our trademarks. Since July 2016, we’ve diligently subjected every batch of our tuna production to mercury analysis conducted by an independent laboratory.
From July 2016 to December 2023, all of our 6000 production batches of canned tuna underwent testing to ensure that they all met the stringent global limit of 0.5 ppm of methyl mercury*. In 2023, our independent laboratory further enhanced its mercury testing capabilities, achieving a limit of detection of 0.002 ppm and a limit of quantification of 0.005 ppm.
Of the tested batches, 96.6% exhibited mercury levels below 0.2 ppm, ranging from 0.005 ppm to 0.195 ppm. The remaining 3.4% of batches showed mercury levels ranging from 0.203 ppm to 0.296 ppm, well below the stringent limit of 0.5 ppm. As expected, our consumers can continue to enjoy our canned tuna products with confidence, free from worries about mercury.
To the best of our knowledge, we remain the sole mass-market tuna brand worldwide committed to testing all our tuna production for mercury, addressing a primary concern among tuna consumers.
(*For a better understanding, it is important to know that infinitesimal traces of mercury or any other heavy metal naturally occur in all our foods. This is notably due to volcanic activity and land emissions and poses no risk to human health. What really matters is to be able to detect unusual levels (above 0.5 ppm) that would indicate mercury pollution resulting from the tuna’s diet.)
Radioactivity in fish
Although regulatory authorities have ensured the safety of radioactivity levels in all food distributed within our markets, we acknowledge that it remains a matter of concern for some of our consumers.
In response to this concern, we rigorously test samples from every single batch of sardines and mackerel. By the end of 2023, we had conducted tests on no fewer than 16,000 batches. These tests have consistently shown no radiation issues.
This unequivocally confirms that all the analyses have consistently yielded negative results. Consumers can rest assured that fish bearing our trademarks are closely monitored and have not been exposed to radioactive pollution*.
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(*For a better understanding, it is important to distinguish the normal level of radiation on earth, that poses no problem for the human body, and radioactive pollution, which is an abnormal level of radioactivity, caused by industrial or military activity. Our analyses aim to protect the consumer from the risks of radioactive pollution)
BPA Awareness
BPA (Bisphenol A) is an industrial chemical used in the production of certain plastics and resins since the 1960s. It is commonly found in polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins, frequently used in containers for food and beverages.
?Starting in 2011, the use of Bisphenol A in the composition of plastics for baby bottles was prohibited due to concerns regarding its potential to disrupt hormones. France took further action in 2015 by banning BPA in all food packaging materials, including cans.
In line with our commitment to adhere to stringent global food regulations, DAP has been diligently working since 2015 (and formalized under pledge number 5 in 2017) towards implementing
BPA-FREE linings in all its cans. This endeavour involves meticulous and time-consuming efforts, including real-time ageing tests, to ensure that the new lining is not only effective but also safer than the previous coating.
We have been able to introduce BPA-FREE linings in cans for all sardines and mackerel in tomato sauce as well as our range of coconut products. Additionally, we are pleased to share that, since 2023, our entire range of canned tuna is produced using cans with BPA-FREE linings.
?Today, a very limited handful of products still utilize coatings containing BPA due to inconclusive results from real-time ageing tests. Our research and development team is actively working on these products, and an updated list will be included in every report to maintain transparency.
The products that have not yet transitioned to cans with BPA-FREE linings as of the end of 2023 include:
Our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) vision for our consumers revolves around providing them with complete peace of mind when consuming our products. We strive to address, examine, and resolve any concerns pre-emptively, ensuring that our consumers can trust in the safety and quality of our offerings.
About Maison Denis
In 1954, Denis took over the A. Clouet company in Malaya with its main food business: Ayam Brand. Ayam Brand, founded in 1892 in Singapore by Mr Alfred Clouet, became an international brand distributed in more than 30 markets on three continents and is ranked 520th consumer brand in Asia (Asia’s Top 1000 Brands 2021, Nielsen). "