Imported ice creams fail food safety tests

Ten samples of new ice-cream products imported from Singapore were found to contain excessive bacteria before they went on the market, the Centre for Food Safety said yesterday.

The samples, contaminated with the faecal bacteria coliform, were from two batches from King's Brand, of King's Creameries in Singapore, the first consignments of the products imported to Hong Kong.

The contamination was revealed in the centre's food safety report for June, which listed tests on about 5,600 food samples, of which 24 samples were found to be unsatisfactory.

One of the King's products, Potong black glutinous rice- flavoured ice-cream bar, contained 570 to 990 units of faecal coliform bacteria per gram. The legal limit is 100 units per gram. The other product, a vanilla-flavoured spinner cone, contained 140 to 230 units per gram.

The centre collected the samples at Eugina Limited, a distributor which imported the products, and said no stock had been released onto the market. A Eugina spokesman was not available last night.

The centre also found that the tartare sauce offered by Burger King's outlet at the airport contained excessive amounts of the preservatives benzoic acid and sorbic acid. Other unsatisfactory results included a fresh mushroom and a fresh beef sample from a Sha Tin market, which contained amounts of cadmium and sulphur dioxide respectively.