Two senior executives from the Guangzhou Tianyang Food Co. Ltd.
have been detained on suspicion of supplying the carcinogenic Sudan
I coloring agent to more than 30 food manufacturers, including the
Chinese subsidiary of US food giant H. J. Heinz Company.
Police took General Manager Tan Weitang and his assistant Feng
Yonghua into custody on Saturday, an official from the Guangzhou
Municipal Bureau of Quality Supervision and Inspection announced on
Monday.
Since February, some 88 products in China have been found to
contain the banned chemical.
Officials say Feng admitted his company secretly put food
additives containing Sudan I into its chili oil, which has been
sold to companies in Guangdong,
Zhejiang,
Anhui,
Henan
and Jiangsu
provinces since 2002.
Tan and Feng are the first and, so far, only people to have been
detained in the case.
All Sudan I-contaminated products found on the mainland have
been linked to chili oil and food additives provided by the
Guangzhou Tianyang Food, which is located in a suburb of Guangzhou,
the capital of south China's Guangdong Province.
Heinz Meiweiyuan (Guangzhou) Food Co. Ltd. became the first
mainland company to confirm the presence of Sudan I in its food on
February 4 this year.
Heinz said it had purchased the contaminated ingredients from
Guangzhou Tianyang Food.
Last month, Heinz Meiweiyuan destroyed more than 300,450 bottles
of chili sauce and chili oil that were suspected of containing the
banned colorant.
Sudan I is a red dye used for coloring solvents, oils, waxes,
gasoline and shoe and floor polishes. It cannot safely be used in
food, as it can contribute to an increased risk of cancer. The dye
was found by the Food Standards Agency of Britain on February 18 in
a batch of chili powder made by UK's Premier Foods.
(China Daily April 12, 2005)