The maker of one of Hong Kong's most popular brands of soy sauce was fined $30,000 yesterday for falsely advertising that its products did not contain MSG.
Magistrate Thomas Tsang Fan-hoi also ordered the company to pay costs of $1,770 after he convicted the manufacturer of breaching the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance. Amoy Food had pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Information published by the firm in a December 2003 newspaper advertisement stated that Amoy oyster sauce and Amoy soy sauce did not contain MSG.
This contradicted tests conducted by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, which found that the products contained monosodium glutamate at a level of between 4,400 parts per million and 5,900 ppm.
Consumer Council deputy chief executive Connie Lau Yin-hing said she was disappointed that an established brand such as Amoy had been guilty of false advertising.
She said: 'Consumers usually look at information provided by the manufacturers to make choices. So manufacturers ... have both the moral obligation and legal requirement to disclose the information honestly. It is absolutely unacceptable for business traders to provide misleading information or make false claims.'