TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A company accused of distributing chili powder containing the banned dye Sudan III also used the product to make curry powder, reports said Friday (March 1).
The carcinogenic additive was first discovered in chili pepper powder supplied by a company in the Chinese province of Henan to an importer in New Taipei City. An executive at one food processor, Chiseng Hong Ltd., was accused of forging a document showing residues of Sudan III to allow the company to continue selling its products to supermarkets.
Inspectors in New Taipei City said Friday the company’s factory in Yunlin County had also used the tainted product to make three types of curry powder, per CNA. Two customers removed 421.2 kilograms of the curry powder from their shelves and warned other stores which had bought some of the product.
A total of 13 food companies across the country had used the chili pepper powder from China, health officials said. All the powder formed part of the same batch with the expiry date listed as Oct. 12, 2026.
In Yunlin County, the local government on Friday ordered the Chiseng Hong factory to suspend operations after a court-approved prosecutors’ request to detain its research manager for forging a report. Swiss testing and certification group SGS Taiwan Ltd. had found Sudan III in the factory’s spices, but the manager altered the findings to keep selling the product to the PX Mart supermarket chain.