Hong Kong trader seeks judicial review over hairy crab ban
Company says it lost about HK$2 million to HK$3 million in profit when food safety authority suspended import of crustaceans from two mainland farms
A trader which claims to have lost as much as HK$3 million in profit during the recent tainted hairy crab scare has mounted a legal challenge against the food safety authority over a ban on the crustaceans sourced from two mainland aquaculture farms.
In a judicial review application filed at the High Court yesterday, the Hong Kong Tin Lung Trading Company claimed the decision announced by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department on November 1 to suspend the import of hairy crabs from two farms in Jiangsu province was “unfair” and “unreasonable”.
The department urged local retailers to stop selling products from these two mainland farms after some were found to have been contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals.
Two out of five hairy crab samples from three importers and two retailers contained excessive levels of dioxin and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls. Both are highly toxic chemical compounds that can cause cancer and damage the reproductive and immune systems, according to the Centre for Food Safety.
In its submission, Tin Lung Trading, together with Hong Kong Hairy Crab I&E, accused the food safety authority of making an order without consulting them or any other hairy crab traders first.
The companies noted that the department, under Section 30 of the Food Safety Ordinance, would have the power to make an order to prohibit the import and supply of any food for a specified period.