JEDDAH, 26 February 2007 — The Shoura Council said yesterday that it would take up the issue of tainted taheena being sold in the market with Minister of Commerce and Industry Hashim Yamani.
According to local press reports, at least 10 factories were found producing taheena mixed with titanium dioxide, a carcinogenic whitening compound.
The consultative body, according to informed sources, will also set up a scientific committee to investigate the growing number of cancer cases in the country and the possible link to taheena, a thick sesame sauce, and other foodstuffs containing cancer-causing substances.
“We’ll question the minister of commerce on the taheena issue,” Abdul Aziz Abdullah Al-Dakheel, a Shoura member, told Al-Yaum newspaper.
He did not rule out calling officials of the General Authority for Food and Medicine (GAFM), which is being the executive body concerned with foodstuffs.
Another Shoura member, who requested anonymity, said the Commerce Ministry had given one and half years for traders to dispose of tainted taheena before banning the product. “If this report is correct, the ministry should be held responsible for playing with public health,” the Shoura member told the Arabic daily.
The GAFM said it considered the addition of titanium dioxide to taheena a violation of the standards set by the Gulf Cooperation Council.
However, Ibrahim Al-Mohaizie, executive vice president of GAFM, said titanium dioxide did not pose any danger to human health. “Its carcinogenic effect has not yet been proved,” he said quoting findings of international agencies.
“But the GCC standards prohibit addition of colors including titanium dioxide to taheena. As a result, the presence of this material in taheena will be considered a violation of these mandatory standards,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted Al- Mohaizie as saying.
Muhammad Ateeq Al-Harbi, director general of the Commerce and Industry Ministry’s office in Jeddah, said his department would not allow sale of any food product that contains titanium dioxide.
But Maeedh Abdullah Al-Zahrani, director of the central quality control laboratory and standards at the ministry, said his department had found many factories using the cancerous titanium dioxide in their food products, especially in taheena.
Officials from the ministry and municipalities recently confiscated carcinogenic materials from 10 factories in Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah. Jeddah Municipality’s market monitoring officials said they had found six factories in the city producing tainted taheena.
