Belgian officials have issued a warning because of incidents of hepatitis infections being linked to dietary supplements containing curcumin.
The Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FASFC) cited a notification in the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) detailing cases of acute cholestatic hepatitis following consumption of various dietary supplements containing curcumin.
This alert is not public and the agency has not yet responded to a request for more information from Food Safety News.
FASFC reported the exact source of contamination was not yet clearly established but was probably due to the presence of curcumin. Curcumin is a substance in turmeric.
The curcumin was used in lot 1810224 of the food supplement “Curcuma Liposomal and poivre noir.” The company Plastimea SA decided to withdraw the product branded Nutrimea from sale. It has an expiration date of October 2021 and was sold between Oct. 23, 2018, and May 24 this year on Amazon France.
Italian authorities first raised the alert in May with two reports of hepatitis. The National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità) in the country reported 21 cases as of June 20.
The number of products affected has grown from two to more than 20 involving firms such as Frama SRL, Scharper S.p.A, Vanatari International GmbH, Ekappa Laboratori S.r.l., and Fidia Farmaceutici S.p.A.
Meanwhile, the number of people with hepatitis A connected with a school in Ripon, a city in North Yorkshire County in England, has increased by two to 19. Reports of new infections connected to Outwood Academy have slowed down during the past week.
Public Health England (PHE) is reviewing data on food eaten in the school canteen to find the source of the outbreak.
FoodWorld 