Nongshim ramen to be recalled

A shopper picks Neoguri ramen, one of Nongshim’s six instant noodle products found to contain cancer-causing benzopyrene, at a supermarket in downtown Seoul, Thursday. The Korea Food and Drug Administration has ordered Nongshim, the nation’s largest noodle maker, to recall the products amid concerns about food safety. / Korea Times photo by Hong In-ki

Some instant noodles contain cancer-causing substance

By Kim Rahn

The health authorities have ordered Nongshim to recall six of its instant noodle brands as small amounts of a cancer-causing substance have been detected in them.

Officials of the Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) said Thursday they had told the food maker to remove all ramen made with katsuobushi, or smoke-dried bonito, that contain benzopyrene from store shelves.

Benzopyrene has been designated a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Until a day ago, the authorities said they would not order recall or take any other action against the products in question, claiming the amounts of benzopyrene detected were within safe levels.

“Not only Nongshim’s but also other manufacturers’ products containing the problematic ingredient will be ordered recalled. We’ll also expand inspections of food products made with katsuobushi,” a KFDA official said.

It was found Tuesday that Nongshim’s mild and spicy Neoguri ramen, Neoguri cup ramen in small and big bowls, Saeutang (shrimp soup) cup noodles and Saengsaeng udon contained contaminated katsuobushi produced by a subcontractor Daewang.

In June, the subcontractor produced and supplied katsuobushi containing 10.6-55.6 parts per billion (ppb) of benzopyrene, more than the permissible level of less than 10 ppb.

At that time, the KFDA took administrative action against Daewang. The authority also detected up to 4.7 ppb of benzopyrene in the six noodle products, but it neither ordered the recall, nor made the information public, as it concluded the detected amounts were too small to do any harm.

Nongshim also discarded the ingredients in question and picked a different subcontractor at that time but didn’t voluntarily collect products that had already been distributed.

Despite the public concern about the safety of the noodles, the KFDA said on its website on Wednesday that the 4.7 ppb of benzopyrene is a permissible level for smoke-dried fish. It said no country, including Korea, has separate criteria for the substance in products processed with such fish ingredients.

“Even if people eat the noodles with 4.7 ppb, they will take in 0.000005 micrograms of benzopyrene per day, while they usually consume 16,000 times more benzopyrene, or 0.08 micrograms, when eating cooked meat,” the KFDA said.

Nongshim also said on its website that its products are exported to 80 countries and not a single issue has been raised about safety related to benzopyrene.

But lawmakers denounced the food authority during Wednesday’s parliamentary inspection of the government, saying it was neglecting public health. KFDA Commissioner Lee Hee-sung promised to order a recall.

In the meantime, some of Taiwan’s discount stores, including Carrefour, RT-Mart and PxMart, have begun removing Nongshim ramen from their shelves following the news, according to the China Post. The country imports two of the products in question.