Information on Sudan 1 food contaminant safety alert

 DEVON County Council's Trading Standards Officers are asking the public to help in the identification of any stores that have not yet cleared from their shelves product names by the Food Standards Agency as containing the banned food dye, Sudan 1.

This dye was present in a batch of chilli powder used by Premier Foods to manufacture a Worcester sauce, which was then used as an ingredient in at least 400 products commonly available from a wide range of retail outlets, including many major supermarket chains.

The Trading Standards Service is also reinforcing the Food Standards Agency advice that any member of the public who has any of these products at home should not eat them, but return them to the shop from which they were purchased for a refund or destroy them.

Food wholesalers and retailers are also strongly advised to check their stocks against the list issued by the Food Standards Agency and withdraw any of the contaminated items.  It is likely that other contaminated items will be identified so members of the public and food business should keep an eye out for new developments on the FSA website.

Councillor Stuart Hughes, Devon County Council's Executive Member for Community Safety, said: "Our Trading Standards Officers will be co-ordinating their efforts with their Environmental Health colleagues to ensure these products have been withdrawn from sale, but clearly with the wide range of products involved - and the even wider range of outlets from where affected products may be available - it presents an enormous potential logistical task to try to ensure that the message has got through to, and been acted upon, by all stockists.

"Therefore the public can help by notifying the Trading Standards Service of any retailers where any of these products still seem to be on sale.  We expect most retailers to act responsibly and clear the products from their shelves, but there is always an outside chance that a retailer may have missed the wide publicity given to this issue or perhaps just cannot be bothered to take the action necessary.

"I would urge anyone who is aware of a retail outlet where these products are still on sale to contact the Trading Standards Advice unit on 01392 381381.  Retailers who are unsure of which products are affected by the food safety warning can also get further information from this number, or from the FSA website.

The above website contains links to lists of products identified as being affected.  Please note additional product lists are being added to the FSA website as more suspect foodstuffs are found.

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Disclaimer | last updated 22nd February 2005