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.