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Clifford Lo

Seafood lovers paying up to HK$560 for what they think is dried abalone for Lunar New Year feasts should think again: it might be conch meat worth less than a tenth of that price.
The warning comes from customs officers who found all 31 samples they bought  from shops across the city in December were in fact conch.
They were described variously as 'Japanese abalone slices', 'American abalone slices' and 'South African abalone slices', Marcus Lau Yiu-keung,  head of the customs' trade descriptions and transshipment  controls bureau,  said.
The bought samples were priced between HK$128 and HK$560 a catty. Low-quality conch can sell for about HK$50, he said.
Officers said an initial examination showed that the fake goods did not contain harmful substances.
 But after tests, customs officers raided 31 shops on Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories and seized a total of 117 catties of 'dried abalone slice', believed to be conch. 
The seized meat, worth about HK$30,000, was taken away for examination.
Twenty-eight shop owners aged from 30 to 59 - 22 men and six women - were arrested on suspicion of breaching the Trade Description Ordinance. 
They have been released on bail pending further investigation.
Lau said selling conch meat as dried abalone was 'a high-profit business' but shop owners or salespeople could face a maximum penalty of a HK$500,000 fine and five years' imprisonment under the Trade Description Ordinance.
The selling price of genuine dried abalone ranged from a few thousand to more than HK$10,000 per catty and 'genuine abalone was rarely sold in slices', he said. 
The price of abalone as a whole piece is much higher than in slices. 
Abalone is virtually a staple food at festivals and wedding banquets for well-off families in Hong Kong and on the mainland.
Although it was the largest seizure in a single operation, Lau said the problem of fake abalone slices was not new and there was no indication the problem is getting worse. 'Customs is watchful of this kind of dishonest sales,' he said. 
Last year, 10 complaints over the purchase of fake abalone were lodged with customs.
Officers said their investigation showed that there was no syndicate behind the fake goods and they were still looking for the source of the seized goods.
Lau yesterday urged people to be careful when buying dried seafood and to  consider doing their shopping at stores that were known to be trustworthy.  
Meanwhile, a dietician has advised Hongkongers to eat smart during the Lunar New Year holiday. 
During the period, people usually eat treats with a high fat and sugar intake, such as sweets and chocolates, when they visit relatives. 
Dietician Leslie Chan Kwok-pan said people should pay attention to their intake of calories.
An adult requires 2,000 to 2,500 calories daily from a balanced diet, but more than 1,000 calories can be accumulated by eating five sweets, two fried dumplings, four slices of fried rice cake and fried turnip cake, eight tablespoons of pistachio and pumpkin seeds and five chocolates. 
'Excessive calories will be stored in the form of body fat and this increases the risk of chronic diseases,' he said. 
'People can get diarrhoea or gastroesophageal reflux disease if they eat too much.'
To avoid these problems, Chan said: 'It is better not to eat too often between meals as your digestive system can't take it.'
Seafood con
Low-quality conch meat sells for about HK$50 per catty in the city
Customs' Marcus Lau Yiu-keung (below) says the conch meat labelled as abalone is selling for up to (in HK dollars): $560



Cheap conch meat sold as dried abalone in shop scam