Tainted Chinese chili powder imported by New Taipei firm: FDA

Taipei, Feb. 21 (CNA) A batch of chili powder that was found to contain a carcinogenic dye was imported from China by a New Taipei-based company and sold to seven domestic food producers, Taiwan's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Wednesday.

The FDA made the revelation after several local governments issued an order Tuesday to remove a popular brand of spicy-flavored shrimp snack from store shelves after it was found to contain Sudan III, an industrial dye that is not allowed to be used for food processing in Taiwan.

Sudan dyes are a group of industrial dyes consisting of several red colors -- including Sudan I, II, III, and IV -- which are listed as toxic chemical substances by the Ministry of Environment's Chemicals Administration.

The case came to light when the Yunlin Public Health Bureau said on Feb. 8 that it had found the red chili powder from Chiseng Hong Ltd.'s Douliu plant to contain 18 parts per billion (ppb) of Sudan III on Jan. 30. and had ordered it to be removed from shelves.

FDA Deputy Director Lin Chin-fu (林金富) said Wednesday at a news conference that the source of the tainted chili powder had been traced to a raw material dealer in New Taipei -- Bao Hsin Enterprises Co., which supplied the raw material to at least seven companies, including Chiseng Hong.

So far, 500 of the 2,500 kilograms of red chili powder that Chiseng Hong bought from Bao Hsin have been seized and stored at its Douliu plant, according to FDA data.

Chiseng Hong also sold some of the red chili powder to the PX Mart supermarket chain in the form of seasoning and spice blends. A total of 1,824 cans of the blends have so far been removed from store shelves, according to the FDA.

It also sold the raw material to Yu Zong Foods Co. in Kaohsiung which used it to produce its "Hsia Wei Hsien" spicy shrimp strips, with an estimated 31,208.65 kg of the shrimp snack produced between January and early February. A product recall is underway, the FDA said.

From Dec. 11, 2023, Chinese chili powder products have been subject to batch-by-batch inspections, Lin said, adding that batch had been imported before, the inspection rate was 50 percent.

From Aug. 12 to Feb. 12, of the 172 batches of Chinese chili powder submitted for inspection, 24 failed. Of those, five were found to contain Sudan III, and 16 were found to contain excessive levels of chlormequat chloride, a type of pesticide residue harmful to human health, according to FDA data.

The FDA is planning to complete all checks on the 172 batches within a month, Lin said.

He added that 21 Chinese manufacturers of products that failed inspections will be banned from importing goods for three months.

Furthermore, the Taoyuan Department of Public Health said Wednesday in a statement that it had taken 10 red chili powder samples from Bao Hsin's Guishan warehouse and retail outlets in the city and that four items had been found to contain Sudan III.

The department said it has initiated preventive measures to either have the products in question removed from the market or kept in the warehouse.