TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ordered the recall of 450,000 cups of Haagen-Dazs ice cream due to the suspected presence of a cancer-causing ingredient, reports said Wednesday (Aug. 10).

Ethylene oxide, a pesticide banned in the European Union, was reportedly found to have contaminated vanilla extracts used in ice cream in Europe, triggering bans and recalls in several countries.

After studying the information from overseas, the FDA concluded that five flavors of Haagen-Dazs ice cream, amounting to 450,000 cups weighing a total of 60,000 kilograms, should be stopped from going on sale or removed from shelves, CNA reported. Singapore and Hong Kong also took similar measures.

The five ice cream flavors involved were Cookies and Cream, Belgian Chocolate, and three flavors in the Twist and Crunch series, namely Chocolate and Strawberry, Vanilla and Raspberry, and Milk Tea with Brown Sugar and Vanilla, according to the report.

As the General Mills factory in France which produced the ice cream had mentioned the vanilla contamination issue, there was no need to conduct extra tests, but a recall could be put into place immediately, the FDA said. According to officials, consumers who had already bought the flavors on the list could contact the seller and turn in the product.

The FDA mentioned that in June, border inspections found small quantities of a banned pesticide in Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream, successfully preventing 5,471 kg of the product from reaching consumers.