Food alert: Liquid mercury has been found in a batch of Greatwall Brand Chopped Pork & Ham.

The Centre for Food Safety has advised the public not to eat a certain batch of Greatwall Brand Chopped Pork & Ham after some drops of liquid mercury were found in a can of the product.

The distributing agent, Yuen Tai Trading Company, has imported 1,000 cartons or 48,000 cans of the concerned batch of products. Their best-before date is January 17, 2013, and each tin weighs 340 grammes.

The company has agreed to immediately recall the batch and has set up a hotline, 2549 0016, for consumers.

The centre received a food complaint on July 17 involving a can of the luncheon meat which was found to have some silver drops when opened. Test results today confirmed the drops are liquid mercury, with a total weight of 0.4 gramme.

The centre has collected another 13 samples of the same product of different batches from the local market. Preliminary examinations did not uncover mercury drops.  Detailed test results are pending.

It is investigating the incident and has informed the relevant Mainland authority of the finding that liquid mercury is not involved in the product's manufacturing process.

The trade should stop selling the concerned batch of products. Consumers who found any foreign matter in canned food should alert the centre.

Liquid mercury is poorly absorbed in the digestive tract, so its ingestion is unlikely to cause health concerns.