Australia and New Zealand yesterday joined Britain in warning against consuming soy sauce following a survey which found some may contain cancer-causing chemicals.
"The Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA) [yesterday] advised consumers that certain soy and oyster sauces have been found to contain high levels of potentially cancer-causing agents," the joint authority said in a statement.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The warning followed one the day before issued by Britain's Food Standards Agency, which has found that certain brands of soy sauce imported from Thailand, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan contain 3-MCPD, a chemical that can cause cancer if taken daily.
Some also contained 1,3-DCP, which experts advise should not be present at any level in food.
But soy sauce makers in Taiwan said yesterday they had improved quality to meet international standards.
"We have revised the production process since last March to make products qualify under international standards," said an official with Wan Jia Shian Brewery Co (
ANZFA emphasized only one manufacturing process, which uses acid hydrolysis, might cause the chemical contamination, stressing that soy sauces manufactured using a natural fermentation process were regarded as safe.
British health officers began removing 22 soy sauce or soy-based products across the country on Thursday after a warning from the Food Standards Agency that they contained levels of 3-MCPD above safety guidelines.
The Wan Jia Shian Brewery official said their soy sauce products currently contain less than 0.01 parts per million of 3-MCPD which meets the most stringent standards applied by European countries.
Another Taiwan soy sauce maker, Kimlan Foods Co (金蘭), said the samples tested by the FSA could have come from its China plant, where their products had traceable levels of 3-MCPD, but they had stopped such production there. The company said it is shifting focus to production of fermented soy sauce which is free of any 3-MCPD.
Taiwan's Department of Health said it planned to require soy sauce makers to keep 3-MCPD levels below 0.1ppm from July 2002. Products failing to meet the standard would be removed from shelves.
"We have advised local soy sauce makers to gradually reduce the levels of 3-MCPD. We will be moving to internationally accepted standards," said Chen Shu-kong, director of bureau of food sanitation under the health department.
Chinese soy sauce makers protested and threatened legal action yesterday while the Thai government said it was still studying whether incoming EU regulations on acceptable levels of the chemical amounted to an unfair trade barrier.
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