THEAN Heong Sauce Industry Sdn Bhd, the Malaysian manufacturer of the Hand Flower Brand Soy Sauce, has come out in the open with assurance that “not a single customer has consumed” the affected batch of soy sauce which was recently recalled by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) due to the presence of benzoic acid that exceeded regulatory limit.
SFA said on Friday evening (Sept 2) that it detected levels of the food additive that surpassed the limit for sauces as stated in the Singapore Food Regulations in the soy sauce brand which is acclaimed to be a mum’s favourite for braising. Moreover, the agency claimed that the use of benzoic acid is not declared on the soy sauce’s food packaging label.
As a precautionary measure, SFA said it has directed the importer, Heng Yoon Trading Pte Ltd, to recall the affected sauce which bears batch number KSS0 125 and slated for expiry on July 26 next year. The recall is on-going.
“The shipment (of the said batch) had been discontinued before entering the Singapore checkpoint and the products have been fully recycled and destroyed,” Thean Heong clarified in a Mandarin Facebook posting. “Our company wishes to emphasise that there is not a single bottle of high level benzoic acid soy sauce bearing our brand in the market.”
The Sungai Siput (Perak)-based soy manufacturer further explained that the company “has acted immediately” upon detecting a higher than usual benzoic acid level in its products two weeks ago and “things have been resolved” prior to SFA issuing the product recall order.
“(However), many unknown local media and online media outlets continue to highlight the side effects of taking a large amount of benzoic acid which has a certain psychological impact on consumers and undoubtedly has been a blow to our company’s reputation which is fair to a certain degree,” lamented Thean Heong.
“(But) there is no need to go to the extent that ‘consumers who have used the affected products and who are concerned about their health should consult their doctors’ opinion’ because none of the affected products were released to the market.”
“We express our deepest apologies for any inconvenience this may cause to dealers or consumers. We will be extra strict on our products and continue to bring quality products to customers,” the company added.
The Hand Flower Brand Soy Sauce is available on several e-commerce platforms and at least one supermarket chain in Singapore, according to Singapore Straits Times.
Based on the levels detected, SFA said one-off consumption of the sauce is unlikely to be of food safety concern given that soy sauce is not a staple food consumed at high levels although consumers should not eat anything that contains high levels of benzoic acid over a long period.
According to Wikipedia, concern has been expressed that benzoic acid and its salts which are often used as food preservatives may react with ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in some soft drinks, thus forming small quantities of carcinogenic benzene.
Apart from the Hand Flower Brand Soy Sauce, SFA has earlier ordered the recall of Malaysia-made mooncake brand due to the presence of E coli in the product.
In a media release dated Aug 29, SFA said it detected E coli in the product at levels “exceeding the microbial limits” for ready-to-eat food stated in the Singapore Food Regulations.
“The affected product is My Mum’s Cookies Premium Mao Shan Wang Snowskin Mooncake (Vegan) with a batch number of 23GBB-400 and a best before date of Dec 31, 2022. The product’s country of origin is Malaysia,” added the agency. – Sept 5, 2022
