Pringles taken of the shelf in Hong Kong potassium bromate cancer scare

Packets of the popular snack Pringles were Wednesday removed from Hong Kong supermarkets after tests in mainland China found them to contain a cancer-causing chemical. Barbecue-flavoured packets of the potato crisps were taken off sale in Wellcome, one of the city's leading supermarket chains, after potassium bromate was discovered in samples in China.

Potassium bromate is a preservative allowed in limited quantities in the US but banned in China, Hong Kong and other countries because tests have found it to be carcinogenic.

The tests that discovered the ingredient were reportedly carried out in China in July when officials in the port of Zhuhai found the ingredient in imported Pringles.