Most soy sauces get all-clear

The Australia New Zealand Food Authority (Anzfa) has cleared all but two brands of soy sauce of containing unacceptable levels of cancer-causing chemicals.

The announcement follows warnings in June that some soy products could contain the hazardous chemicals.

In a release posted on its website yesterday, Anzfa said it had ordered a recall of two products under the Golden Mountain brand, produced in Thailand, and one under the Taiwanese Wanjashan brand, from sale and distribution in Australia.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health said New Zealand would follow Australia's lead.

Anzfa managing director Ian Lindenmayer said following the worrying test results from Britain this year, the authority had commissioned its own tests and was now in a position to clear all domestically produced soy and oyster sauces and all but two brands of imported product.

He said the Anzfa board had recommended to the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Council that its Food Standards Code be amended to set an upper limit for chloropropanols in soy and oyster sauces.

Last month the ministry warned consumers to avoid Golden Mountain soya bean sauce, and Director-General of Health Karen Poutasi said at the time she expected its New Zealand importers to withdraw it from the marketplace.

- NZPA