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Munching on red melon seeds during the Lunar New Year could mean a mouthful of toxic mineral oil, the Consumer Council revealed yesterday.

The council found that eight of the 20 brands of dried melon seeds it tested contained various levels of mineral oil, which is sometimes used by unscrupulous manufacturers to make the seeds look shiny and fresh.

'The eight samples - seven red and one black melon seeds - were detected with mineral oil, ranging from 0.05 per cent to 0.3 per cent by weight,' said Larry Kwok Lam-kwong, chairman of the council's publicity and community relations committee.

Two of the samples were found to contain illegal amounts of the oil - 0.24 per cent and 0.3 per cent of the seeds by weight.

Under Food and Environmental Hygiene Department rules, melon seeds should not contain more than 0.2 per cent mineral oil. The oil is banned as an ingredient and only trace amounts - from machinery, for example - are allowed. Ingesting too much mineral oil can lead to gastric upset, nausea and diarrhoea.

'Mineral oil is usually used for external skin products or as a laxative. Ingesting large amounts could result in diarrhoea,' dietician Priscilla Lau Li-yi explained.

Mr Kwok said people who had the habit of putting entire seeds in their mouths could easily exceed the acceptable daily intake with just two contaminated seeds.

He said that a 60kg adult would exceed the daily limit by eating two seeds with a 0.3 per cent coating of a medium to low-viscosity mineral oil.

Although the tested samples did not contain dangerous amounts of the oil, the council warned consumers to be careful when choosing melon seeds, a traditional Lunar New Year snack.

'If you see that a seed is exceptionally shiny you should be careful because they probably contain mineral oil,' Mr Kwok said. He suggested the use of seed openers.

Graphic: SEED16GET



Shiny melon seeds may be coated with toxic oil, watchdog warns