EU urges food firms to dump tainted chilli stocks

Food firms should dump tainted chilli stocks containing a dye linked to cancer, the EU executive Commission said today.

Food firms should dump tainted chilli stocks containing a dye linked to cancer, the EU executive Commission said today.

Britain has taken 427 ready meals, sauces and soups off supermarket shelves following the discovery of the illegal Sudan 1 dye, banned in the EU since June 2003, in food.

"Certain industrial operators have not faced up to their responsibilities and cleaned up their stocks of raw material," EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said in a statement.

Eleven other EU states are checking food for contamination.