Researchers at the Prince of Wales Hospital have been putting chopsticks under the microscope.
Their sudden interest in cutlery is part of a quest to discover how stomach ulcer bacteria is transmitted.
The Helicobacter pylori bacteria was found to be the main cause of stomach ulcers in 1994, dismissing previous assumptions that they are caused by stress or poor diets.
But how they are transmitted is still unclear.
Oral transmission of saliva has been identified as the main culprit, but as Dr Joseph Sung Jao-yiu says: 'There's no fixed conclusion.' The head of the Prince of Wales Hospital's gastroenterology and hepatology division embarked on a clinical trial of 27 patients' eating habits following research in Australia which pointed to chopsticks.
The epidemiological study in Australia showed that Chinese people who used chopsticks to eat from a shared dish had a high prevalence - 60 per cent of 328 people surveyed - of the H pylori bacteria.
The 27 patients studied, aged 19 to 80, were all confirmed as being infected with the bacteria.