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| Sunday, 20 February 2005 |
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Britain orders recall of hundreds of food products in cancer scare Saturday, (AFP) Britain's food safety watchdog ordered the recall Friday of more than 350 food products, ranging from pizza to a popular brand of instant noodles, after it found a potentially cancer-causing dye. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it was working with supermarkets and local authorities to make sure that all the affected goods are removed from the shelves and urged consumers who find them in their cupboards to contact the store where the food was bought for a refund. The dye, known as Sudan I, "could contribute to an increased risk of cancer," said FSA chief executive Jon Bell, while downplaying the gravity of the health threat. "At the levels present the risk is likely to be very small but it is sensible to avoid eating any more," he said in a statement. "There is no risk of immediate ill health," Bell said. The red-coloured dye, which is used for colouring non-edible items such as petrol and shoe polish, was found in a batch of chilli powder used by the British company Premium Foods to make Worcester Sauce, which was then added as an ingredient in a wide range of products, the FSA said. The agency has published a full list of the affected items, which are stocked by Britain's main supermarket chains and include ready-made meals such as shepherd's pie, pasta bake, chicken wings, pizza and chilli con carne. A number of products made by well-known British food companies have also been blacklisted, including three flavours of Unilever's top-selling Pot Noodle brand. All have a best before date of November 2005. Britain's biggest supermarket chain Tesco said it had reacted quickly to the FSA order. "We removed all the items," a spokesman said, declining to reveal the volume of products affected. "It was a significant (recall)," he told AFP. The spokesman encouraged all customers who discover a listed product to return it to their local Tesco store where they would be fully refunded. Rival grocery chain J Sainsbury has taken similar measures. "We have removed from the shelves all products affected as a precautionary measure," said company spokeswoman Abbi Irvingdale. The FSA has issued several smaller food recalls since 2003 due to the discovery of Sudan I, but this time it was different due to the long list of well-known products affected, a spokeswoman said. It is illegal to put Sudan 1 into food in Britain and the rest of the European Union and all chilli powder imported since July 2003 has to be certified free of the agent. The offending sample is thought to have entered Britain beforehand. |
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