Pasta bugs, plastic salt and ice cream bacteria: 2020’s top food scares in Hong Kong

Health was on everyone’s minds over the past year as the Covid-19 health crisis swept Hong Kong, but the discovery of food impurities also made headlines

From energy bars loaded with sugar to ‘siu mei’ – spit-roasted meat – that carried a walloping full day of recommended sodium intake, here are some of the reports that mattered most

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The Consumer Council discovered two popular ice cream products exceeded the legal levels for bacterial count. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 11:30am, 24 Dec 2020Updated: 2:20pm, 30 Dec 2020

While health became one of the top concerns in Hong Kong as it battled the Covid-19 pandemic, the consumer watchdog in 2020 also issued multiple warnings over harmful substances people might be ingesting and misleading nutritional information.

The Consumer Council found some dried pasta sold in the city contained insect fragments and pesticide residue, while various levels of metallic contaminants were discovered in certain canned fish products and salt.

Here are nine of the biggest food scares in Hong Kong from the past year.

Consumers were advised to check the expiration date on pasta packaging and look for signs of mould or contamination before they buy. Photo: Dickson Lee

1. Pasta pests

The council studied 35 pasta products and found insect fragments, rodent hair and pesticide residue, as well as toxins from mould in some samples. It called on manufacturers to step up hygiene of the production process. One packet of instant macaroni, made by Nissin and packaged locally, contained 548 microscopic insect fragments, according to the council. More than two-thirds of the samples also carried pesticide residue and deoxynivalenol, a toxin produced by mould which frequently infects grain and can cause vomiting and diarrhoea if eaten in large amounts.