TWO bottles of hazardous soy sauce have been confiscated from a North-East Chinese takeaway.

Stockton Borough Council food safety officers were checking stocks of soy sauce at Chinese restaurants and takeaways after a warning from the national Food Standards Agency (FSA).

The FSA had advised that certain brands of sauce imported from China should be withdrawn, although most brands - including all those available from supermarkets - pose no threat to health.

Officers visited all 29 outlets in the borough earlier in the week, and in one restaurant they found two bottles of sauce from the potentially dangerous batch.

The proprietor immediately handed over the bottles.

The council will now work with the FSA to trace the source of the supply so that any other affected products can be removed from the food chain.

Rob Llewellyn, the council's principal environmental health officer, said: "We have acted swiftly and effectively to remove this product.

"Officers worked out of hours to visit these premises and have nothing but praise for the cooperation they received from proprietors."

The FSA has said the product would only pose a health threat if used on a very regular basis over a long period of time.