Food Safety
In 2000-2001, Britain's Food Standards Agency (FSA) identified various brands of Chinese and South-East Asian sauces, including Lee Kum Kee products, with known carcinogens 3-MCPD and 1,3-dichloropropanol (1,3-DCP) contamination at levels hundreds of times higher than those deemed safe by the UK and European Union. Lee Kum Kee was not singled out in what appeared to be an industry-wide problem. The results were published in a June 2001 report.
Lee Kum Kee responded by stating that the affected products were all manufactured before 1999 when the manufacturing technology was updated; as a result, from 1999 their products contain no DCP. In a press release, Lee Kum Kee said that FSA cleared Lee Kum Kee's name in a separate statement to the industry issued within 24 hours of the FSA's initial report which indicated that "None of the products sampled from major retail chains posed any safety concern" and stressed that "there was no reason to avoid Chinese food." Lee Kum Kee also claimed that Food and Environmental Hygiene Department of the Government of Hong Kong has indicated that all Lee Kum Kee products in Hong Kong complied with safety standards as evidenced by a separate study.
Additionally, in July 2001 Lee Ku Kee submitted to FSA certificates of analysis for the presence of 3-MCPD which showed that the soy sauce imported into Europe complies with the proposed EU limit for 3-MCPD.
Read more about this topic: Lee Kum Kee
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