BEIJING -- The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection
and Quarantine (AQSIQ) said Tuesday stricter inspections were needed to ensure
that dangerous dyes do not contaminate eggs.
AQSIQ ordered local officials at all levels to carry out special inspections
of firms producing egg products after alarms were raised concerning red-yolk
salted duck eggs that are suspected of containing the carcinogenic industrial
dye, Sudan-IV.
The alleged contamination was revealed by a weekly quality report program on
China Central Television. Duck farms in counties near Shijiazhuang, the capital
of Hebei, were fingered as the probable source of eggs believed to contain
Sudan-IV.
AQSIQ required the authority in north China's Hebei province to isolate all
suspected red-yolk salted duck eggs, take random samples and run the tests.
Enterprises found using the cancer-causing colorant, Sudan, will be ordered
to stop production and sales and recall all products containing Sudan.
AQSIQ also called on its local officials to inspect firms producing Sudan to
ascertain exactly where their products go, noting that it was illegal to sell
Sudan to food processing enterprises.
