New Zealand investigators have not yet found any of the products affected by a recall in the UK, the New Zealand Food Safety Authority said today (Monday). They are still looking, but they don’t expect to find anything.
“Investigations are continuing and will do so as long as is required to ascertain if any of the products are in the New Zealand marketplace, although this is still believed to be highly unlikely,” the authority said.
A recall of 359 foods is underway in the UK, because of contamination by the dye Sudan 1, which may not be used in food.
“We have activated our tracing procedures,” said Jenny Bishop, NZFSA programme manager (Technical Standards). “We are working closely with other food safety authorities, as well as New Zealand Customs and Public Health Units, to determine if any of the products were exported to New Zealand and are on sale here.”
Although the risk to human health was likely to be very small, the authority was taking the situation seriously. “All our available resources are being concentrated on determining the situation in New Zealand,” she said. “We believe that it is unlikely many, if any, of these products from the affected batches are in New Zealand as most appear to be ‘own-brand’ products made for British supermarket chains.”
