Turmeric and palm oil likely to need 'sudan-free' certificates for EU entry
morning on emergency measures to ensure that tumeric and palm oil
are checked at European entry ports to verify they are clear of
sudan 1, the illegal carcinogenic dye, writes Lindsey
Partos.
Meeting in Brussels, Europe's Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (CCFAC) is expected to clear the way to extend controls of this harmful red dye that leaked into the UK food chain in February, prompting the country's largest food recall in history.
If the green light passes this morning, the new measures to tighten up food security for Europe's 250 million consumers could be in place within a few weeks.
"Recent events over sudan 1 in the UK led the Commission to look again at the threat it poses to the food chain," a spokesperson for the Commission tells FoodNavigator.com.
The move to tighten controls on tumeric and palm oil, in particular, come after a series of recent alerts to the Commission that have highlighted sudan 1 contamination in these foodstuffs.
If cleared, the emergency measures will require all imports of the two foodstuffs to be checked at ports of entry throughout Europe, and will require a written certificate that they have been tested, and are clear of the banned red dye.
Sudan 1 to IV are classified as carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and are banned under European Union rules.
The dye came to the attention of the food industry in 2003 when France alerted member states to its presence in an Indian-sourced chilli powder. Today, the European Commission requires that imports of chilli and chilli products - including curry powder - cross the EU border with a certificate that proves they are free of the harmful chemical dyes.
Palm oil and tumeric are very likely to join the list, and could mean more product recalls for the food industry, already coping with the fall out from the discovery of sudan 1 in a Worcester sauce - used as both a tabletop sauce and food ingredient - brand made by UK manufacturer Premier Foods, that triggered the recall of over 600 well-know processed food products on the UK supermarket shelves.
Too early to put a true figure on the cost of the recall, that includes sales loss, destruction, management time plus the 'softer' costs like brand damage, estimates are rolling at €143 million.
If responsibility stops at Premier Foods, the largest food recall in the UK's food industry will weigh heavily on funds at the St.Albans-based company.
EU rules on traceability and the resulting paper trail are in place to avoid illegal ingredients from contaminating the European food chain; but despite this, doses of sudan 1 filtered into the food processing system.
The Commission is taking an unequivocal stance on sudan 1: speaking shortly after the UK's Food Standards Agency issued the warning about sudan 1, Europe's health commissioner Markos Kyprianou clearly laid responsibility with the food processors.
"Old stocks of chilli from before June 2003 appear still to be used by food processors. Certain industrial operators have not faced up to their responsibilities and cleaned up their stocks of raw material," he commented.
