Health inspectors in the Far East on Monday warned consumers against eating U.S. sausages sold in the Primorye region for fear of "carcinogenic" lead poisoning.
The Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Inspection Service's branch for the Primorye and Sakhalin regions said it had tested two 6-ton shipments of imported chicken sausages and had found almost twice the permissible quantity of lead in them.
The first shipment contained 0.85 mg/kg of lead while the second had 0.87 mg/kg, which is well above the allowed 0.5 mg.
A lead concentration of 1 mg/kg is enough to cause adverse health effects and a dose of 10 mg/kg could be lethal, the watchdog said in a statement on its website.
Measures are being taken in the two regions to remove the sausages from circulation.
The name of the company responsible for the sausages was not disclosed.
In February 2013, Russia banned all U.S. beef, pork and turkey because of the growth stimulant ractopamine.
