A major spice manufacturer on Sunday said it was taking allegations of product contamination seriously but that the presence of an illegal banned chemical was "highly unlikely."
"The alleged Sudan Red contamination of one of our products which was reported in the Sunday Times is being taken very seriously as we believe this is highly unlikely," said Unilever spokeswoman Christine Broadhurst.
"We are very surprised at the results of this test. Unilever has not had a single incident of Sudan contamination from March 2005 to date."
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Six products withdrawn
The Sunday Times reported that two major supermarkets had withdrawn from their shelves six products contaminated with Sudan chemical dyes, which are potentially cancer-causing.
The contaminated products included peri-peri spice made by Robertsons, a Unilever company said to have the lion's share of the spice market.
"It has been reported that one Robertson's Peri-Peri 48g refill pack allegedly contained Sudan Red," Broadhurst said.
Free of Sudan Red?
"The date codes and batch numbers of this product have been identified. We have established that the raw materials used in this batch are free of Sudan Red."
Unilever had Sudan Red-free clearance certificates from international and local laboratories for raw materials and finished products "in respect of this batch", she added.
In 2005 the Sunday Times had similar tests carried out and 13 products were found to have been contaminated.
Six of these products had again been found to contain the banned industrial colourant.
Broadhurst said that since the 2005 incident, batches of chillies imported from India were certified clear of the chemical, and Unilever locally re-tested every peri-peri batch as a raw material and finished product.
Batch to be re-tested?
The company would investigate the incident by re-testing reference samples from the implicated batch, approaching the Sunday Times to make their spice sample available for re-testing and by working closely with the Department of Health.
The Sunday Times reported that Pick 'n Pay and Shoprite removed the products after results of the analysis done by SGS South Africa - a leading laboratory which does regular Sudan testing for some major industry players - revealed that of the samples tested, six were contaminated with one or more of the Sudan dyes.
The spices were bought randomly from supermarkets countrywide.
It is illegal worldwide to use the dyes in food.
They were classified as potentially cancer-causing by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organisation.
The products included peri-peri spice made by Robertsons and two Taj Mahal spice products made by Osman's Spice Works, a big spice merchant.
On Friday Pick 'n Pay responded swiftly to the alert, withdrawing all implicated products.
We will be extremely angry
"Should further tests confirm the results from the Sunday Times, we will be extremely angry that any supplier would pointedly ignore our directive and potentially put consumers at risk," said the retailer's chief executive, Nick Badminton.
Marketing director of the Shoprite Group, Brian Weyers, said he was dismayed that products laced with the banned substance had again found their way into the market.
"This comes despite written confirmation from the food manufacturing industry that the country's spice is free from the dye.
"The Shoprite Group has removed products that are suspected to contain Sudan," Weyers told the Sunday Times, adding that the group was disappointed that major suppliers did not abide by food safety regulations.
Sudan dyes were legally used to colour petrol, waxes, floor and shoe polish and cosmetics.
Just a kilogram would colour tens of thousands of litres of oil and turn 50 million candles orange.
The dyes have been used illegally in foods to enhance the colour of chilli powders.
The newspaper quoted health department spokesman Sibani Mngadi as saying an urgent meeting had been called by the department with the Consumer Goods Council, which represented manufacturers and retailers. – (Sapa)
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