The Food & Environmental Hygiene Department reminds consumers to pay attention to hygiene when handling food items after two food samples were found to contain pathogens.

Announcing the latest results of the Food Surveillance Programme, the department's Assistant Director Dr Thomas Chung said the most up-to-date results involved about 4,000 food samples taken for microbiological and chemical tests.

For microbiological tests, which target pathogenic bacteria and viruses, the results have been satisfactory, Dr Chung said.

Among the 1,500 food samples tested, only two were found to contain pathogens.

The failures included a rice dumpling, which was found to contain Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium perfringens.

The other was rice with curry pork, found to have Clostridium perfringens.

Proper food storage important

While the detection of pathogens reflected the need to step up good hygiene practice in food handling, Dr Chung stressed the importance of proper storage during cooling, transportation, and sale of food.

"Consumers should also pay attention to personal, environmental and food hygiene when handling food items, which should be properly kept in the refrigerator at 4 degrees Celsius or below. Food meant to be served hot should be heated thoroughly before eating," he said.

For the 2,500 chemical test results, three unsatisfactory samples were detected.

Three samples fail chemical test

They included chilli powder found to contain non-permitted colouring matter, namely Orange II and Rhodamine B. The sample was collected from a restaurant. All the remaining stock had been disposed of.

Another unsatisfactory result involved a fresh mushroom sample, which contained a low level of Cadmium, a naturally occurring metal substance.

In addition, a string bean sample was found to have a low residual level of the pesticide Methamidophos.