KUALA LUMPUR – The maker of “Ah Lai White Curry Noodles” has sent the product for testing after Taiwanese health authorities said it contains a carcinogen, the New Straits Times reports.
A company spokesman told NST this following a news report that the Taipei Health Department had found ethylene oxide in a batch of the noodles made in Malaysia, and in a batch of “Indomie: Special Chicken Flavour” noodles from Indonesia.
Ethylene oxide is a chemical compound associated with lymphoma and leukaemia, and was detected in both the noodles and flavour packet of the Malaysian product, but in only the flavour packet of the Indonesian product.
The company spokesman also told NST that the expiry date of the batch tested by the Taipei health authority ‘did not tally” with a shipment of noodles to Taiwan sent last year.
Meanwhile, The Star also quoted a spokesman from the Penang-based company saying that the Taipei health authority had yet to share with them the results of the tests done nor the samples used.
The spokesman said Ah Lai’s products have “never had a problem” and also never had any claims of carcinogens in the ingredients brought against them since they went into business in 2014.
The Taipei Health Department has pulled the product off shelves and will fine the importers between NT$60,000 (RM8,600) and NT$200 million.
The food test was done by randomly selecting 30 products from supermarkets, convenience stores, hypermarkets, traditional wet markets, Southeast Asian food shops and wholesale importers in the city, the department’s Food and Drug Division’s Chen Yi-ting was reported as saying. – The Vibes, April 25, 2023
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