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| Customers look at Nongshim noodles at a Carrefour Store in Shijingshan district Monday. Most retailers have removed the product from sale. Photo: Li Hao/GT |
A representative of a South Korean instant noodle company in China told the Global Times Monday that their product on sale in Beijing does not contain a cancer-causing agent.
Despite this, most supermarkets in the capital, including Walmart and Ito Yokado, have cleared the shelves of packets of six types of Nongshim noodles, after a recall was issued Friday by Chinese quality supervision authorities.
The health scare comes after the Korean Food and Drug Administration ordered a recall of Nongshim noodles last Wednesday in South Korea, because seasoning packets contained benzopyrene, a cause of lung, bladder and skin cancer, Arirang News reported Friday.
Benzopyrene is a hydrocarbon which is found in coal tar and cigarette smoke.
The same day, the Chinese General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine made an announcement on its website, asking importers to recall the noodles and also demanded an explanation from South Korea. The announcement said that South Korean authorities had agreed to the recall.
The head of the marketing department of Shanghai Nongshim Food Company, surnamed Zhou, told the Global Times Monday that noodles sold in China are manufactured in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, and in Shanghai.
"We asked a third party organization to check the Shenyang noodles, and it turned out there is zero benzopyrene in their products," said Zhou.
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