Two senior executives from the Guangzhou Tianyang Food Co. Ltd. have been detained on suspicion of supplying the carcinogenic Sudan I coloring agent to more than 30 food manufacturers, including the Chinese subsidiary of US food giant H. J. Heinz Company.

Police took General Manager Tan Weitang and his assistant Feng Yonghua into custody on Saturday, an official from the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Quality Supervision and Inspection announced on Monday.

Since February, some 88 products in China have been found to contain the banned chemical.

Officials say Feng admitted his company secretly put food additives containing Sudan I into its chili oil, which has been sold to companies in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Anhui, Henan and Jiangsu provinces since 2002.

Tan and Feng are the first and, so far, only people to have been detained in the case.

All Sudan I-contaminated products found on the mainland have been linked to chili oil and food additives provided by the Guangzhou Tianyang Food, which is located in a suburb of Guangzhou, the capital of south China's Guangdong Province.

Heinz Meiweiyuan (Guangzhou) Food Co. Ltd. became the first mainland company to confirm the presence of Sudan I in its food on February 4 this year.

Heinz said it had purchased the contaminated ingredients from Guangzhou Tianyang Food.

Last month, Heinz Meiweiyuan destroyed more than 300,450 bottles of chili sauce and chili oil that were suspected of containing the banned colorant.

Sudan I is a red dye used for coloring solvents, oils, waxes, gasoline and shoe and floor polishes. It cannot safely be used in food, as it can contribute to an increased risk of cancer. The dye was found by the Food Standards Agency of Britain on February 18 in a batch of chili powder made by UK's Premier Foods.

(China Daily April 12, 2005)