Para Red - what's the fuss?
This page provides information about Para Red - the subject of a recent scare which caused supermarkets to withdraw products from their shelves.
The latest food scare to clear supermarket shelves is the contamination of a variety of products – mainly prepared meals – with chilli powder that has been coloured with an industrial dye called Para Red.
Contamination of this kind, as with Sudan 1, is believed to have resulted from a deliberate act to enhance the appearance of the raw chilli powder.
Para Red is used extensively in the printing industry but is not a permitted colour under the Colours in Food Regulations 1995 and is not permitted in foodstuffs for any purpose.
The Food Standard Agency’s (FSA) independent scientific experts have advised that, although there is very limited data available it would be prudent to assume that it could be a genotoxic carcinogen.
This means it could cause cancer by damaging DNA, and so exposure to it should be as low as reasonably practical.
The FSA met the European Commission to find a way of eliminating this particular threat to the food supply chain.
This whole episode of dye contamination highlights the complex arrangements involved as raw and made-up food constituents are processed, stored and (re)distributed worldwide, sometimes over the course of several years!
Action locally
We are directed to liaise with Surrey County Council Trading Standards on such food contamination matters.
When the FSA direct local authorities to take action, our locally agreed arrangements provide that Trading Standards will take the lead in notifying individual businesses by letter.
Officers from both the County and our own Food Safety Team in Environmental Health Services will also make random checks to confirm any product has been removed.
If you want to check to see if you have any of the affected products at home, further information (including a complete product list) can be found at http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2005/may/parared
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