The Yaohan department store yesterday denied the deadly E-coli 0157:H7 bacteria had originated at its Sha Tin supermarket.
The denial came after the Department of Health decided to seek legal advice on whether the store should be prosecuted, despite the Urban Services Department saying yesterday the abattoir and wholesaler involved would not be sued.
Prosecutions would not be laid against the two parties because there were many possible causes of contamination and it was not sure which procedure had gone wrong, the department said.
But the beef would have originally been contaminated during slaughter, the department added.
Urban Services director Elaine Chung Lai-kwok had said last week they strongly suspected the knife used to slaughter the cattle at the Kennedy Town abattoir had cut into the intestines and contaminated the meat with the deadly bacteria.
A second beef sample taken from the store on March 8 had tested positive for the bacteria after the Department of Health first detected the killer virus in beef at the store a week earlier.
The Regional Services Department is awaiting the full Department of Health report on the E-coli outbreak before deciding on action to be taken against the store.
