070907en05005

	news.gov.hk
	From Hong Kong's Information Services Department

September 7, 2007

Food safety

3 mooncake samples exceed bacterial limit

Centre for Food Safety checks on mooncakes have found three samples exceeding the bacterial limit.

Two ice-cream mooncake samples were found to have bacterial counts at 79,000 per gram and 100,000 per gram. Another sample was found to have coliform organisms at a level of 240 per gramme. The levels exceed legal limits.

Cake check: Centre for Food Safety checks on mooncakes have found three samples exceeding the bacterial limit.

The samples were collected from two ice-cream retail outlets and a food factory. The center has issued warning letters to the premises ordering them to stop selling the products.

The centre collected 69 mooncake samples, including traditional, snowy and ice-cream mooncakes, from retail outlets and food factories for chemical and microbiological tests.

All results were satisfactory as far as the chemical tests were concerned. For microbiological tests no sample was detected with pathogens.

People should only buy mooncakes from reliable retail outlets and store ice-cream mooncakes at -18 degrees Celsius or below.