The Chinese government has been urged to reveal the brand names of 15 soya sauces that contain potentially carcinogenic chemicals.
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Earlier this week the results of tests carried out by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department were revealed, proving the presence of 3-MCPD and 1,3-DCP in 15 out of 72 samples of soy sauce.
The chemicals are thought by scientists to cause liver cancer but as yet no link has been proved, leading Rita Lau Ng Wai-lan, director of Food and Environmental Hygiene, to argue that there is no need to regulate the products.
Legislator Emily Lau Wai-hing maintains however that tests have proved the chemicals cause cancer in rats and points out that despite there being no internationally recognised standard, many other countries have removed the sauces from sale. In Britain, the Food Standards Agency pulled six sauce lines by Lee Kum Kee and Tung Chun from shelves when tests detected the presence of high levels of 3-MCPD and 1,3-DCP.
Lau Wai-hing has written to the government asking that the brands be named.
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By GlobalData“I don’t understand why the department refuses to name the sauces,” she told the South China Morning Post: “This act not only neglects people’s health but also exploits people’s right to know and to choose.”
