Bahrain is safe from a cancer scare over British-made peanut butter earlier thought to be contaminated with a deadly fungus, and will not impose a ban on such products, a health official said on Wednesday.
“Bahrain will not be following other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in banning the product,” a public health directorate official, Abdulla Ahmed, told the Gulf Daily News.
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have so far removed British peanut butter from shelves amid reports that it contains an agent that causes cancer of the liver.
"We don't see a reason for banning it. We have strict controls and all the peanut butter on Bahrain's market is safe for consumption," said Ahmed.
"We follow strict scientific data supplied to us by our testing laboratories which show that the brands available in Bahrain are safe."
The official said he did not know why other countries in the region were banning it.
"We have been conducting our tests for a number of years now and are assured that it's absolutely all right," he said.
He said the peanut butter, peanuts, pistachio, other types of nuts were prone to be contaminated with a toxin, known as aflatoxin, which is caused by a fungus.
"We know the toxin and are keeping a strict check on it because we know how dangerous it is," he continued.
"We have standards in place to ensure that contaminated foods do not enter Bahrain."
The last big health scare in the Gulf region, where scientists report that vast numbers of overfed residents suffer from serious obesity, involved a cargo of contaminated squid – Albawaba.com
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