Tan Weitang and Feng Yonghua, the managers of a foodstuffs company that added an industrial, cancer-causing dye to its products, were jailed for 15 and 10 years respectively by a local court on Wednesday.

The Intermediate People's Court of Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, also fined Tan 2.3 million yuan and Feng 1 million yuan. The court dismissed Tan and Feng's appeal of a lower court verdict passed last Aug. 25.

The court found that Tan, general manager of the Guangzhou Tianyang Foodstuffs Co., Ltd., and owner of a service company under the Guangzhou City Food Research Institute, was in charge of food additive research and development. Feng was Tan's assistant researcher.

The two companies produce and market additives for chilli oil and chilli powder.

The court found that Tan and Feng added cancer-causing Sudan I to its products which were marketed in 18 Chinese provinces and sold overseas.

According to the court, Tan's company produced and sold more than 240,000 kg of the food additive from April, 2002 to March, 2005, earning a profit of more than 4.4 million yuan.

Tan and Feng confessed that since 2002 they had illegally added Sudan I, also known as "Sudan Red", to its hot-selling "Chilli-red No.1".

Sudan Red is a red dye traditionally used for coloring solvents, oils waxes, and shoe and floor polishes. It was first found by the Food Standards Agency of Britain last February in a batch of chilli powder made by Premier Foods, one of the country's largest food and beverage companies.

(Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2006)