Cancer-causing dye is discovered in 350 foods (UK)

[struggle4progress]

By Cahal Milmo
19 February 2005

<snip> More than 350 product lines, ranging from prawn salad to Pot Noodles, were being withdrawn by supermarkets and retailers after the Food Standards Agency (FSA) warned they were contaminated by Sudan I - a red colouring normally used in products such as shoe polish and petrol. <snip>

The red dye, which is banned across the European Union, was contained in a five-ton batch of chilli powder that was used to produce Worcester Sauce by Premier Foods, one of Britain's largest food processing companies.

The FSA said that the Worcester Sauce, a common flavouring in processed foods, had been sold to numerous suppliers in recent weeks, who in turn produce foods for outlets from supermarket chains to convenience stores.

Among the 359 products affected were Birds Eye 400g shepherd pies, five flavours of Pot Noodle and Loyd Grossman sweet and sour sauce sold in 370g and 450g jars. <snip>

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=612528


Cancer dye list looks set to grow

<snip> Sudan 1 is normally used as a colouring in solvents, oils, waxes, petrol, and shoe and floor polish. <snip>

The affected products .. include own-label lines from Asda, Waitrose, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Somerfield, Iceland, the Co-op and Marks and Spencer. <snip>

A full list of the products is available on the FSA website www.food.gov.uk

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4282383.stm


Revealed: cancer-scare foods still on sale
MURDO MACLEOD AND MIKE MACEACHERAN

FOOD stores in Scotland are continuing to sell products contaminated with a cancer-causing dye despite a nationwide order to withdraw them from the shelves.

A team from Scotland on Sunday found three examples of shops ignoring the ban within two hours of checking stores in Edinburgh and Glasgow. <snip>

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=192982005


Dangerous Dye Probably Not On NZ Shelves

The New Zealand Food Safety Authority is investigating whether contaminated products from the UK have been imported into New Zealand. <snip>

An initial test of 43 chilli powders and products containing chilli powder imported into New Zealand showed that only one had measurable levels of the contaminant. The NZFSA says that as a result, the importer voluntarily withdrew the product from sale. <snip>

http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,11964-4131240,00.html


Quarantine alert for banned UK additive
By Daniel Dasey
February 20, 2005
The Sun-Herald

<snip> Quarantine authorities will conduct checks of food imports and exports to see whether a dangerous additive responsible for a massive recall in Britain has entered Australia. <snip>

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Quarantine-alert-for-banned-UK-additive/2005/02/19/1108709487772.html


Spice firms blamed in cancer dye alert

<snip> Yesterday, Tony Hines, deputy director of Leatherhead Food International, the UK’s leading food researcher, said: "There is anecdotal evidence that this has happened because unscrupulous suppliers did not destroy chilli powder when it was originally banned across Europe in July 2003.

"Instead of destroying it some suppliers will have reblended it with clean chilli powder to get it re-certificated. It will then have been possible for it to re-enter the food chain."

Premier Foods took delivery of five tonnes of red chilli powder in 2002. However, the long shelf life of the products in which chilli powder is used as a flavouring, such as ready-made meals and pastes, makes it likely that products containing the contaminated chilli powder remained freely on sale. <snip>

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=193002005

[struggle4progress]

1. Saucy warning about Brit food dye (Canada)

Hundreds of products contaminated with a dye linked to cancer may have been shipped to Canada, Britain's Food Standards Agency said yesterday. Canadian food safety authorities are on the lookout for products containing the dye Sudan I. It was in a batch of chili powder used by U.K-based Premier Foods to make a Worcestershire sauce.

That in turn was used as an ingredient in more than 350 frozen and fresh food products, including pies, sandwiches, sausages, soups and sauces. The products were also shipped to the United States, as well as most of Europe and the Caribbean. <snip>

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/EdmontonSun/News/2005/02/19/935967-sun.html


Advisory - HEALTH HAZARD ALERT - Certain Food Products Imported from the United Kingdom may Contain Sudan I Dye
Distribution Source : Canada NewsWire
Date : Friday - February 18, 2005

OTTAWA, Feb. 18 /CNW Telbec/ - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is warning the public not to consume certain food products identified at the website listed below. These products are being recalled in the United Kingdom (UK) due to contamination with Sudan I, a non-permitted dye, which is a potential carcinogen. Some of these food products may have been imported into Canada from the UK. The Food Standards Agency in the UK has issued a list of affected food products which can be found at: http://www.food.gov.uk/safereating/sudani/sudanlist This advisory applies only to products manufactured in the UK. <snip>

http://press.arrivenet.com/bus/article.php/593370.html

[oscar111]

2. Co -ops run by consumers and employees would be far less or totally

unlikely to do these tricks for profit.

Time to co-op-ize food production and sale.

I believe the double tree symbol is still the symbol of the co-op league.

PS my grocer had a spate of selling veggie tins with loose, poorly glued and misaligned labels... and dirty tins. I concluded he bought fire damaged tins, washed a bit, and relabeled in a sloppy way, to sell high.

PS i also once spotted recalled mushrooms in a local grocer , for sale. Two blocks from the office of the FDA.. or was it the USDA.

PS FDA site has great search box. you can easily check the rap sheet of companies. Some, like all three US tuna firms , will shock you out of eating tuna or whatever. I now stick to chicken. Swanson has a clean rap sheet.

Co-ops are the way to go. Credit unions, oil refineries.. see the huge farmer-run McPherson Kansas refinery site, since WW2... auto parts, insurance, and everything.. see Mondragon spain site.. can be made by the co-op model. Who needs dick cheney types to boss them around? Do you? Co-ops are democracies. Do you prefer Cheney's snarl of contempt? Are you a masochist?

[OKthatsIT]

3. PEOPLE..red dye has been on the cancer list for 3 decades, DUH?

....

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Which red dye?

There's more than one.

This particular one, Sudan 1, has apparently been illegal in the US since 1918, but in Europe only since 1995:

"Sudan 1 is derived from coal tar and used for colouring shoe polish and floor wax. There has been concern over its risk to human health for decades and it was banned in food use in America in 1918.

European Union regulations banned Sudan 1 as a food dye in 1995. Eight years later the FSA issued an alert over 200 products after French officials discovered the dye was being used in some foods. "

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1491905,00.html

[oscar111]

7. I bet EU was late in banning it becuse EU only came into existence

recently.. and its power to do banning may have lagged its general existence.

I wager Sweden banned the dye long long ago.

PS see my re on co-ops

[Ian David]

10. It's that damned FDA suppressing the traditional natural dyes

I don't believe Sudan 1 is bad for you because it is natural. Everything natural is good, and everything approved by the FDA is bad.

This is why we need to disband the FDA and let consumers choose whatever natural remedies and foods they see fit. It's those damned big-money pharmaceutical companies suppressing things like Colloidal Silver and Sudan 1 dye.

The Europeans are so much more enlightened than we are. Why, for example, they never even approved Thalidomide here in America, but in Canada it was enthusiastically embraced by a whole generation of pregnant women.

What has the FDA ever done for us?


Obviously, I am being sarcastic.

Or Ironic.

I forget which.

[truthisfreedom]

4. but it's snacky-good! *licks lips*

did they put gasoline in there too?

[oscar111]

5. Lets nominate for Greatest Page.. button at bottom of orig post. I once

bought mixed veggiesin a tin at a poor area grocery {a common outlet for damaged tins} and tasted something like diesel fuel in it.

I figured it couldnt really be that. so i ate several tins over days of time.

Then i got sick.

Now, years later, i have been able to read FDA site on the contaminants found in tins recalled. Yes, many things get into food. Like petrol based solvents. Must be what i ate.

Read the recalls pages .. at fda site. Learn what is out there. Avoid food from third world, where impoverished govs do less inspection and spray banning than here.

[Shananigans]

9. I sure hope so!

[confludemocrat]

8. Support Europe in banning U.S.-made chem additives

A recent issue of The Nation (Dec 27 issue: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041227&c=1&s=schapiro) discussed how proposed European standards for various U.S.-firm made chemical additives will cause them to be banned if they can resist the lobbying pressure of these U.S. companies. Anyone who might care to contact European bodies: http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/contact/contact_en.htm, might want to encourage them to resist the lobbying efforts of U.S. chem companies., so effective here at putting our environment at risk!

[Deja Q]

11. OMG! We're gonna die! We're gonna DDDDIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

:eyes:

We all DO. It's a matter of where, when, and by whom (as needed).

[despairing optimist]

12. But the donuts with the pink cream are the best ones!

How else can you be sure you're eating real junk?