Public warned not to consume these flavours of Haagen-Dazs after traces of pesticide found

Traces of pesticide found in several flavours of the popular Haagen-Dazs ice-cream brand have prompted warnings to the public by public health systems across Europe.

The issue is linked to the vanilla flavouring used by the American company, and the initial warning, issued on Tuesday, was in fact limited to that flavour.

Further tests found however that the flavouring is used in other products, and the public is now being encouraged to refrain from eating the brand’s Belgian chocolate and macadamia nut brittle flavours as well.

The alert was relayed on the EU’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed system at the request of France, which last month detected 2-Chloroethanol in checks on some Haagen-Dazs products.

2-Chloroethanol is a compound found in ethylene oxide (ETO), a carcinogenic chemical used as a pesticide and cleaning chemical, and has properties that damage DNA.

General Mills said last week that “trace levels of ETO can be sourced to one ingredient (vanilla extract) provided by one of our suppliers”.