The European Union has decided to ban certain smoke flavourings used by the food industry, based on the recommendations of European food safety watchdog EFSA, Dutch media reported.

The flavourings which produces the distinctive smoky flavour have been linked to cancer and infertility, research by the EFSA has shown, and should no longer be present in food.

The EFSA did not investigate how much of the flavourings would have to be consumed to cause cancer but said a blanket ban would prevent “worst case scenarios”.

The flavourings will not be banned with immediate effect and producers of smoke flavoured sausages, sauces, crisps and other products will be given a transition period to find alternatives.

In the Netherlands, Unox sausage makers, which is owned by Unilever, produces 16 million rookworsten a year using the banned process.

The sausages used to be smoked over a fire until the 1970s but that option would not be an alternative, a Unilever spokesman told the AD, because of the detrimental effects of wood smoke on human health and the environment. The company said it will use the transition period to come up with an alternative.

The famous HEMA worsten, which are also produced by Unox at their factory in Oss, will not fall under the ban because they are smoked in the traditional way although “indirectly”, by feeding smoke from a wood fire into a separate smoking space.