Consumer Council says the levels in sardines and tuna pose no health threat
Arsenic has been found in some types of tinned fish - but the Consumer Council says the levels detected are safe.
The council found the heavy metal in samples of sardines packed in tomato sauce and in tuna packed in oil.
Arsenic is the poison of choice for many murderers, in the real world and in fiction, most famously in the play and film Arsenic and Old Lace, in which a man finds that his maiden aunts are serial killers.
But the levels of arsenic found in the fish are unlikely to harm anyone consuming moderate amounts. One expert said a person would have to eat at least nine large cans of the sardines a week to suffer any effect at all.
The arsenic levels in the sardine samples ranged from 0.76 parts per million (ppm) to 2.34 ppm, while those in the tuna ranged from 0.79 ppm to 2.27 ppm.
The amounts exceeded the mainland's limit of 0.5 ppm but were well within the Hong Kong's limit of 6.0 ppm.