Several Shanghai supermarkets are giving customers refunds on
eggs that city health officials warn may contain a chemical linked
to cancer.
Carrefour outlets throughout the city and the Trust-Mart branch
on Xuhui District's Guilin Road are among those giving money back
to shoppers who can produce a receipt for the possibly tainted
eggs.
"We're responsible for our customers' health, so we decided to
provide refunds on the suspect products," said Yu Jian, Carrefour's
Shanghai public relations manager. "We also stopped the sale of all
the questionable brands."
Food and drug regulators in other provinces have banned some
brands of duck and chicken eggs after finding traces of the
potentially carcinogenic dye Sudan-IV in the poultry products.
The dye was fed to ducks to produce red-yolk eggs, which are
sold at a higher price at market because they are believed to be
more nutritious than the yellow-yolk ones. Some chickens were
apparently exposed to the contaminated feed as well.
The Shanghai Food and Drug Administration is checking local eggs
for traces of the dye, and in the meantime has warned consumers to
watch out for the tainted eggs.
The brands involved in the city's tests include Shendan, Sanhu
and Meixiang from Hubei, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.
The test results will be released in two to three days, said Gu
Zhenhua, an official with Shanghai's FDA.
"We'll order local stores to remove the products from their
shelves if the inspection shows the eggs are tainted," Gu said.
The health scare surfaced last week, when 1,159 kilograms of
salted red-yolk eggs, all produced in Hebei Province, were seized
in Beijing because they contained the dye.
The Shanghai FDA said at that time that all egg products sold in
the city were safe because there were no imports from the
province.
But since then, the list of tainted egg reports has expanded to
Henan, Anhui, Liaoning and other provinces.
The state quality watchdog has ordered the companies involved to
stop production and sales, recall all the problem eggs and destroy
them.
Many Shanghai consumers expressed concern over all egg products,
no matter what their brand or province of origin.
"No one knows how long the suppliers have been up to their
tricks," said a shopper surnamed Wang. "We don't want to take any
risk of eating poisonous eggs."
Meixiang egg products from Hubei Province are still on shelf
yesterday at a Nonggongshang Supermarket in Jing'an District.
A store clerk who was not willing to be named said the market
had not received any notice to stop selling the products. "Too many
brand names have been reported, and we are confused over which is
safe," she said.
The clerk said that the store's egg business has fallen sharply
since the Sudan-IV reports surfaced.
(Shanghai Daily November 22, 2006)
