The Food & Environmental Hygiene Department today said its Centre for Food Safety (CFS) collects food samples at retail level for routine safety testing, and such samples are taken by staff who purchase the products as a customer without revealing their identity to the vendors.

The department added that designated samples provided by retail outlets will not be accepted for testing.

It explained that if a sample fails to meet the established safety standards, the CFS will take appropriate risk management actions, including issuing press releases to inform the public of the related risks.

Under the Microbiological Guidelines for Food, if a ready-to-eat food contains Bacillus cereus at a level of less than 1,000 per gram, it is considered satisfactory; a level of 1,000 to 100,000 is considered borderline but requires further action; a level of more than 100,000 is considered unsatisfactory.

Addressing media enquiries on a bottled preserved bean curd product, the department said the CFS collected a sample of it for testing from a Sai Ying Pun retail outlet at the end of June. The sample contained Bacillus cereus at a level of 130,000 per gram which is considered unsatisfactory under the guidelines.

The CFS has therefore strengthened relevant surveillance immediately, and purchased in early July a sample of another batch of the same bottled preserved bean curd product from a Jordan retail outlet for testing.

The test result showed that the sample contained Bacillus cereus at a level of 10,000 per gram, which is considered borderline but not satisfactory.

According to the guidelines, the CFS shall collect a follow-up sample of another batch of the product, which is not a designated sample provided by the retail outlet.

CFS staff then purchased a sample of another batch of the bottled preserved bean curd product from the same Jordan outlet again in mid-July. The follow-up test result showed that the sample contained Bacillus cereus at a level of 1,300,000 per gram, which is considered unsatisfactory.

The centre has informed the retailer and manufacturer concerned and instructed them to stop sales, initiate affected product recalls immediately and improve the food production process. Investigations are ongoing.

Additionally, during an inspection of the food factory concerned on July 4, CFS staff found that some of the raw materials were improperly stored and the hygiene condition of the packaging area was not up to standard, which increased the risk of food contamination.

Apart from providing health education on food safety and hygiene to the food factory’s person-in-charge and staff, CFS officers also requested them to review and improve the food production process, from proper storage of raw materials to carrying out thorough cleaning and disinfection.

From 2021 to mid-July of 2024, the centre collected under its routine Food Surveillance Programme more than 140 preserved bean curd samples of 26 brands for testing, 23 samples of which were produced by the manufacturer concerned.

In addition to the two samples concerned, an excessive amount of Bacillus cereus was also found in a sample of another brand.

The CFS has taken follow-up action on the unsatisfactory samples in accordance with the established procedures, including informing the vendors concerned of the test results, instructing them to stop selling the affected products, and tracing the sources of the food items in question.

It has also announced the test results concerning the unsatisfactory samples and explained to the public the food safety risks involved.