Carcinogenic substance 3-MCPD was found in larger than permitted amounts in some soya sauce products sold in Ho Chi Minh City, city health inspectors said Wednesday.

Both were bottled by Khuong Phat Trade and Commerce Co. Ltd. based in Hoc Mon District.

The samples were found containing more 3-MCPD than the permitted level of one milligram per kilogram and not as much protein as the company had stated.

Khuong Phat has been suspended and asked to withdraw the tainted products from the market for disposal. Around 18 liters of the products remaining at the company were sealed Wednesday.

The carcinogenic substance made headlines in 2007 when the HCMC Health Department blacklisted 10 tainted soy sauce makers but the media later found the department had been aware of the problem since 2001, and had discovered at least 20 tainted soy sauce brands in 2005-06 but had neither publicized the wrongdoing nor punished those responsible.

Nguyen The Dung, then director of the department, and its chief inspector Nguyen Duc An were sacked. For more than two years, the market was believed to be free from 3-MCPD.

Reported by Thanh Tung