Scandal-hit herbal chain Hoi Tin Tong may scale back business
Hoi Tin Tong founder laments poor sales even as tests he commissioned produce positive results
Beleaguered herbal chain Hoi Tin Tong may scale back business, its founder says, weeks after twin scandals hit the company last month, when it was accused of selling mouldy jelly and jelly with almost no turtle shell.
"I have to see how fast [the business] recovers," said founder Ng Yiu-ming, without revealing how badly the scandals had affected business in his 81 outlets. "If it's slow, then for sure we have to lose some weight to strengthen competitiveness … Our employees are good; I really don't want to have to let them go."
City University's [study] is so lame - only several samples were tested
Last month, a video purportedly showing a Hoi Tin Tong staff cleaning mould off jelly before selling it as fresh went viral.
Then, a separate study by Cheung Hon-yeung, an associate professor in City University's biology and chemistry department, found no turtle-shell collagen in three of four Hoi Tin Tong samples bought on the mainland and in Hong Kong two months ago. The amount of collagen in the positive sample was estimated to be 1,000 times less than the amount in other brands.
Ng earlier said the video was part of his former employee Choi Kwok-leung's smear campaign against his company. A Centre for Food Safety spokesman said it had not tested any jelly after it found no mould in samples it took from Hoi Tin Tong outlets in mid-September.
Yesterday, a biotechnology company commissioned by Ng to conduct tests to prove his jelly contained turtle, argued that Cheung's study was "not well-rounded".