My Take | Mooncake scare is a Mid-Autumn Festival tradition
This year it’s a cancer-causing substance found in excessive levels that’s made the news. But while the traditional mooncake is in itself threatening enough, eating a few a year probably won’t kill you.
It’s not aflatoxin B1 in mooncakes people need to worry about in a few brands. It’s the fat, sugar and sodium in all mooncakes.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is fast approaching. Journalistic tradition dictates the need for a health-scare story about mooncakes this time of year. This year, it’s the turn of the cancer-causing substance.
Apparently if you consume aflatoxins on a regular basis, they can give you liver cancer. Aflatoxin B1 has a higher risk of causing cancer in people with the hepatitis B or C virus. But most people would probably develop high blood pressure and heart diseases long before that.
Macau’s health authorities said the dangerous substance has been found to exceed the permitted level of 5 micrograms for every 1,000g per sample by 2.48 micrograms.
In Hong Kong, the legal level is 15 micrograms. The mooncake samples were made by Hang Heung Cake Shop in Hong Kong and a hotel in Macau. Hang Heung has said it will not recall the mooncakes in Hong Kong. Outrage ensues.