Society

Workshop shut down for dying steamed buns

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-04-17 17:33

WENZHOU, Zhejiang - Authorities in an eastern Chinese city have closed an unlicensed steamed bun workshop whose products were found to contain prohibited chemicals.

Food safety watchdog said Sunday the workshop in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, was suspected of producing thousands of steamed buns containing illegal yellow coloring every day for the past two months. Some of the tainted steamed buns, a popular Chinese staple, were supplied to a local school.

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The authorities said they are checking which school the buns were sent to and whether any student was sick after eating the buns.

Officials found synthetic lemon yellow dye being applied to the unfinished steamed buns during a raid on the workshop on April 15. The dye was banned in baking fermentable food, according to the national food production standards.

The raid in Wenzhou came on the heels of the shutdown of a Shanghai-based company earlier in the week.

Five managers of Shanghai Shenglu Food Co. have been held by police for adding similar chemical dyes to steamed buns.

The coloring was to make wheat buns look like corn flour buns and to sell the fake "corn flour buns" at higher prices, food safety officials said.

Health experts say consuming food with synthetic lemon yellow dye for a long time can cause damage to the human's liver and the nerve system.