Jon Murray, The Province /
These Asian sauces are delicious, but health authorities say
they may also be
deadly.
| Astoundingly
high levels of a cancer-causing chemical have been found in an array
of Chinese sauces used in many B.C. kitchens.
The amounts in the sauces, including the hugely popular Lee Kum
Kee oyster and soy sauces, were as high as 3,000 times the
recommended limits.
Health Canada is investigating after British health authorities
ordered stores and supermarkets to clear the shelves of Amoy brand
oyster sauce because it contains dangerous levels of the
carcinogenic chemical 3-MCPD.
"Amoy and Lee Kum Kee have been around for generations. They are
the Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola of Chinese sauces," said Victor Wong of
the Vancouver Association of Chinese Canadians.
Wong described the sauces as the salt of Chinese kitchens, adding
that the public would not be too happy to see them taken off the
shelves here.
"But the reports will help them make a choice," he said.
Stores and restaurants contacted in the Lower Mainland yesterday
said they have not been warned about the sauces -- and doubted they
could be dangerous.
"Don't talk rubbish," said a disbelieving employee of a large
Chinese supermarket.
The South China Morning Post reported that high levels of the
carcinogen were found by British health authorities who examined Lee
Kum Kee's premium soy sauce, premium dark soy sauce, vegetarian
oyster-flavoured sauce, Amoy's oyster sauce, Pearl River Bridge soy
sauces and several other brands of similar sauces made in Singapore,
China, Taiwan, Korea and the Philippines.
"Our food safety inspectors have been alerted," a Health Canada
official said late Friday.
In Hong Kong, manufacturers Amoy Food and Lee Kum Kee said they
planned to solve the problem by changing the recipe by the end of
the year.
Amoy said it has stopped supplying its oyster sauce to the
European Union until the recipe is changed.
But the company said it will not withdraw the sauces from sale
elsewhere.
A company official quoted in Hong Kong said only the Amoy oyster
sauce line exceeded the safety limits, and other sauces were below
danger levels.
"There is no health danger to the public," the Amoy spokesman
said.
"We don't believe it's necessary to withdraw the products because
there is no law on the limits in Hong Kong and no scientific study
has shown a precise danger level for human exposure."
Hong Kong's health department said there is no evidence to show
that 3-MCPD is carcinogenic.
But the British government's Joint Foods and Standards Safety
Group said the high levels, found after warnings from experts in
Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, were of serious concern.
Their research showed that rats subjected to large doses of
3-MCPD contracted cancer.
"As it has been shown to cause cancer in rats when fed at high
doses over prolonged periods, it is clearly sensible to take all
reasonable steps to keep it out of the food supply," a British
health official was quoted as saying.
The British study also found unsafe levels of the same chemical
in sauces made by the British-based supermarket chain Sainsbury and
Wing Yip.
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