In Ireland, this includes Häagen-Dazs Vanilla ice cream from France.

Ethylene oxide is a pesticide that is not permitted for use in foods sold in the EU but is approved for use by other countries outside the EU.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland says that although the consumption of contaminated products does not pose an acute risk to health, there is an increased risk if there is a continued consumption of ethylene oxide in contaminated food over a long period of time.

In the EU, detections of ethylene oxide in sesame seeds from India started to increase in September 2020. More than half of the EU’s annual imports of 70,000 tons of sesame comes from India.

Thousands of conventional and organic products with long shelf life dates, such as cereals, chocolate, biscuits, bread, crackers, sesame oil, bagels, and Asian dishes were affected.

Detections have continued, but with the contaminant also being found in food additives such as locust bean gum (which is at the centre of the Häagen-Dazs ice cream recall), guar gum, and xanthan gum from Turkey, and in food supplements and spices.

Some of the detections have been of 2-chloroethanol (a metabolite of ethylene oxide) exceeding maximum residue limits.

Now, the EU Commission has said the presence of ethylene oxide, irrespective of origin, is not authorised for food additives.

This ruling is designed to reduce enforcement problems which arise because it is difficult to establish whether the presence of ethylene oxide is from the sterilisation of food additives or is due to other reasons.

Therefore, no residue above 0.1 mg/kg of the sum of ethylene oxide and 2-chloro-ethanol can be present in food additives in the EU, from September.

Increasing food recalls are likely, because Brussels is de-authorising more and more pesticides for the EU market, but residues are likely to continue in foods imported from countries where it is still allowed to use these pesticides.