Issued By Durham County Council

APPLE JUICE HEALTH FEARS

A food safety warning was issued in County Durham today after bottled apple juice was found to contain unacceptably high levels of a chemical.  

Routine safety checks by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) found that naturally occurring patulin in the James White brand apple juice posed a risk to public health.

Now Durham County Council's Consumer Services, working with district council environmental health officers, are making sure all stock is removed from shelves.

Phillip Holman, the County Council's Head of Consumer Services, said:  "We have been advised that this product was on sale locally and, although we understand the risk to consumers to be small, it's important to ensure that all identified stock is safely removed from sale.

"Although patulin is a naturally occurring chemical, the FSA decided that even the low levels found in this apple juice still posed an unacceptable risk to public health.

"Research experiments have previously identified patulin as a toxin and further adverse health effects are suspected.

"As a precaution, it's important to keep human exposure to this chemical as low as possible," he said.

Councillor Don Ross, Deputy Leader of the County Council, said:  "We would advise consumers to check carefully for this batch of juice, and dispose of it as a precautionary safety measure."

The suspect product is Fresh Dry Bramley Apple Juice, under the brand name James White.

It is packed in 75cl glass bottles with a Best Before date of September 2003 and a batch code of SEP03D.

Note to News Editors:  This particular brand of apple juice was not on sale in high street supermarkets but was available in about 160 outlets around the country - mostly farm shops, garden centres and nurseries.  The premises are known to enforcement services.

For further information contact Peter Fleming, Assistant Head of Consumer Services on 0191 383 3584, or Duncan Castling, divisional manager, on 0191 383 3056 or email duncan.castling@durham.gov.uk