Chiayi sesame oil maker ordered to suspend operations over carcinogen

Taipei, Aug. 26 (CNA) A sesame cooking oil maker in Chiayi City was ordered to halt operations on Wednesday after excessive levels of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), a known carcinogen, were detected in its products, the city's Public Health Bureau said.

Uni‑Procurement Corp., a legacy brand that has been in business for more than 70 years, became the latest cooking oil manufacturer found to have products excessive levels of BaP, a byproduct of intense thermal processing, following earlier cases involving soybean and camellia oil last month.

The bureau inspected Uni‑Procurement on Monday after the company reported that testing of its 255‑ml bottles of black sesame oil found a BaP concentration of 3.2 micrograms per kilogram (μg/kg), above Taiwan's legal limit of 2 μg/kg, the bureau said Wednesday.

Inspectors sampled black sesame oil stored in on‑site tanks and ordered the company to suspend sesame oil production, the bureau said in a news release.

Uni-Procurement reported the matter to Chiayi City authorities after Santa Cruz, an organic brand owned by Taoyuan's President Natural Industrial Corp., detected non-compliant results during self-inspections of the oil maker's 255-ml black sesame oil.

On Monday, President Natural Industrial Corp. also notified the Taipei City Department of Health of the results, leading officials to order a blanket recall of the product across all sales platforms and retail channels, according to the department.

Speaking to the press on Wednesday, Department Commissioner Huang Chien-hua (黃建華) said officials had inspected Santa Cruz's headquarters and stores on Tuesday to verify that the recall order had been fully implemented.

Last month, Taiwan's cooking oil industry came under scrutiny after Central Union Oil Corp., a major soybean-based oil producer, was found to have produced oil with BaP levels four times the legal limit, prompting widespread product recalls.

The scandal has since expanded to include camellia oil, with at least nine manufacturers across the nation implicated, before the sesame oil issue surfaced.