Cancer-causing dye found in food products, authority warns

An illegal carcinogenic food colourant, banned since 2003, has been discovered in some 40 food products, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has warned.

Consumers of popular convenience foods including Pot Noodle, Cross and Blackwell Worcester sauce, and a number of ready-made meals by Tesco, Heinz, Iceland and Bird's Eye, could have been ingesting the banned colourant, Sudan Red 1, for up to two years, the FSAI said.

The authority has issued a list of products known to have been contaminated with the colourant, which it warns should not be eaten. FSAI staff are being retained over the weekend to update the list. At least 350 products have been implicated in the UK.

The colourant, which is categorised as an industrial dye, entered the food chain through a batch of chilli powder imported to Britain from India and used by Premier Foods (UK) in the manufacture of Worcester sauce. Premier Foods supplied the sauce to a number of branded companies and to the manufacturers of other food products, such as ready-made meals, soups and crisps.

The colourant was discovered in the sauce during routine testing in an Italian laboratory earlier this week.

Premier Foods has been under investigation by the UK Food Standards Agency since the discovery.

"It is clear that people have been consuming this for some time," said FSAI chief executive Dr John O'Brien. "I'm so annoyed that it was not picked up sooner. We could be going back two years. This is an illegal dye that should not have been used in food."

The FSAI was alerted to the contamination by the UK authorities in the middle of this week and has been working with manufacturers and retailers to get the products off the shelves over the past two days.

Dr O'Brien likened the health risks of Sudan Red 1 to those of cigarettes. "Substances that have the potential to cause cancer in animals we avoid exposure to. It's a bit like cigarettes - one is not going to give you cancer but every day for 25 years is going to put you at much greater risk of cancer."

Dr O'Brien was "dumbfounded" that Premier Foods had not checked the chilli powder.