40 toxic products removed from Belgian shelves immediately
More than forty products from Belgian supermarkets have been removed from the shelves immediately because they contain a carcinogenic pesticide. FAVV, the Belgian Food Safety Authority, is urging people not to eat the products but to throw them away immediately. They include, among other things, Heks’n kaas, ice creams and vitamin pills.
Last year, the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FAVV) discovered that sesame seeds in some cases contained large quantities of the toxic ethylene oxide. That pesticide is not permitted for use in Europe, but it is still used in countries such as India. Ethylene oxide has now turned up again, this time in Bounty, Snickers, Twix and Mars ice creams, in Heks’n kaas and in vitamin pills. The FAVV has published a long list on its website of food products that are best not used.
Kidney and liver cancer
The ethylene oxide has now been found in locust bean gum, which is used as a thickening agent in the food industry. If you ingest a little ethylene oxide, you will not immediately drop dead foaming at the mouth, but it is genuinely not good for you, says toxicologist Jan Tytgat of the university in Leuven. ‘Anyone who eats products containing contaminated sesame seeds for days has an increased risk of cancer, particularly kidney and liver cancer,’ he told the Belgian newspaper De Morgen.
Check the freezer
People in Belgium are being asked to thoroughly inspect their pantry and freezer. If they come across products that appear on the list, they must throw them away immediately. If they take a photo of the product, they may receive a voucher for its purchase value.
Dairy-free drinks
Is that ethylene oxide also present in products available in the Netherlands? So far, only a few products have been recalled here, such as Lidl’s Vemondo Vegan Mondarella and several dairy-free drinks from Isola Bio. John West herring fillets in tomato sauce have also been removed from the shelves. Foodwatch is concerned about the pesticide. France and Belgium appear to carry out stricter checks than the Netherlands; here, for example, only half of the imported sesame seeds are checked before they can be sent to stores.
Albert Heijn also issues a warning
Important safety warning from Albert Heijn today: do not use Davitamon Magnesium muscles and bones (42 tablets). In consultation with the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA), Omega Pharma Nederland has decided, as a precaution, to stop selling Davitamon muscles and bones 42 tablets with batch number L1110012. The reason, as you may have guessed: one of the ingredients may contain ethylene oxide.
Also read:
- Complaining elevated to an art form: ‘Those spareribs are far too spicy, I want my money back’
- Soon there won’t be any factory-farmed chickens left in the supermarket
- How to remove that large block of ice from your freezer
Source: De Morgen, Hart van Nederland
