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Kylie Knott

“Eat your greens” has long been the mantra for healthy eating.
But recently in Australia, baby spinach – the leafy green vegetable that’s rich in iron, vitamin C, potassium, and magnesium – contained some unwanted extras.
This month, dozens of unwitting people ate contaminated spinach, causing symptoms from blurred vision to hallucinations.
A recall was issued for 13 spinach-based foods and the authorities identified the culprit as thornapple weed, scientifically known as Datura stramonium.

Also referred to as jimsonweed, devil’s snare and devil’s trumpet, the weed was harvested and packed along with the baby spinach.
“The entire plant, particularly the seeds, is poisonous. It contains topane alkaloids, toxins that can cause serious illness or death,” reads a message on the country’s Department of Primary Industries website.
“Children are very sensitive to common thornapple poisoning. They have been poisoned by sucking nectar from flowers and eating seeds,” it read.
Food scares have become increasingly common amid globalisation.

Cross-contamination, careless cooking and cleaning, and misused chemicals can lead to outbreaks of illnesses.
Hong Kong has had its fair share of food scares but they are rarely homegrown as the overwhelming majority – more than 90 per cent – of food bought, sold, and consumed in the city is imported.
In 2014, it was embroiled in Taiwan’s “gutter oil” scandal when edible oil firm Chang Guann was found to have blended its products with “gutter oil” – illegally produced and potentially harmful oil usually made from recycled kitchen waste, offal and the byproducts of tanneries.
Some of Hong Kong’s restaurant chains, supermarkets and convenience stores were forced to remove cakes, bread, instant noodles, cookies, steamed buns and dumplings from their shelves.

In 2014, a mainland Chinese supplier to McDonald’s in Hong Kong was accused of selling expired meat to the fast-food chain.
Shanghai Husi Food Co was repackaging old meat and applying labels with new expiration dates. McNuggets and chicken fillet burgers were removed from Hong Kong menus.
A contaminated egg scandal that rocked the European Union in 2017 spread to Hong Kong when eggs were found to be tainted with unsafe levels of insecticide, while in 2013, a horsemeat scandal involving 13 European nations reached Hong Kong when a brand of beef lasagne was pulled because of the risk it might be adulterated with equine meat.
In 2020, Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog issued a warning when it discovered rodent hair and bug fragments in some samples of pre-packaged pasta.

Of the 35 products studied, more than two-thirds were also found to have pesticide residue.


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Trending in Hong Kong

Food frights: from bugs and rats to tainted horse meat — ‘devil’ spinach scare raises spectre of Hong Kong’s contaminated past

A batch of tainted spinach has been taken off the shelves in Australia in a move that has brought back memories of food scares that hit Hong Kong in the past. Photo: SCMP Composite.

A spinach scare in Australia has evoked memories of some of Hong Kong’s most unpleasant contaminated food mishaps – from bugs to horse meat and gutter oil. Photo: SCMP Composite.

In 2020 consumer watchdogs in Hong Kong ordered food makers to boost quality control after insect fragments were found in pre-packed pasta. Photo: SCMP/Dickson Lee

In an earlier food scare, Hong Kong food inspectors found eggs imported from northeast China were contaminated with high levels of melamine. 

Steamed buns and other delicacies had to be removed from Hong Kong shelves after a “gutter oil” scare in 2014.   

Beef lasagne was at the centre of a horsemeat contamination food scare in 2013.

Heavenly King’s ransom: Hong Kong Cantopop star Aaron Kwok lands US$144,000 payout over illegal use of his image in mainland China

Hong Kong Cantopop entertainer, Aaron Kwok, lands damages payout from court in mainland China after a bicycle-making company pilfered his image and signature to promote their products. Photo: SCMP Composite

One of Hong Kong’s “Four Heavenly Kings”, Cantopop star Aaron Kwok has won US$144,000 in damages from a Chinese company which used his portrait in marketing promotions without his permission. Photo: SCMP Composite

 Singer Aaron Kwok performs during a concert at Marina Bay Sands Expo, Singapore. Photo: Xinhua

The superstar entertainer had initially sought damages of US$718,000 over the unauthorised use of his image. 

‘Can’t believe such a great love exists’: man in China looks after girlfriend paralysed a month after first date for 30 years, touches millions

“Such a person is rare”: the love story of a man who spent 30 years caring for his girlfriend after she was paralysed on their way to get married touches millions in China. Photo: SCMP composite/Handout

Although some relatives told Xu to leave Huang, he refused and has remained with her to this day as her carer and partner. Photo: Weibo

The couple eventually adopted a daughter, shown above top right, as Huang was unable to have children. Photo: Weibo

It was only 26 years later that the couple were able to finally tie the knot after the accident disrupted their wedding plan in 1992. Photo: CCTV

Loving children in China: boy plays nanny with baby brother, kids tease giggling infant and son helps fainting mum in viral stories

A boy playing nanny to a toddler and two older kids teasing a delighted baby trend online in China in viral videos. Photo: SCMP composite/Handout

The boy’s mother says he has shown love and devotion to his younger brother since he was born and is “very responsible”. Photo: Baidu

“The adorable three, and a family full of love”, commented one person online after the video of the three brothers went viral. Photo: Douyin

“Mother has fainted”, the concerned boy tells his father over the phone when trying to get help. Photo: Baidu

‘He saves 600 kids a year’: Chinese man who quit job in finance to become farmer prevents death of hundreds of baby goats on hi-tech farm

AI technology introduced by a Shanghai farmer who used to work in the city’s finance sector has greatly reduced deaths among baby goats Photo: SCMP Composite

A Chinese man who quit his job in finance to become a farmer has saved the lives of hundreds of baby goats by introducing artificial technology into the birthing process. Photo: SCMP Composite

Huang Zhen with some of the farmers who work on his farm on Shanghai’s Chongming Island. Photo: Weibo

Huang down on the farm with one of his brown goats. Photo: Weibo

Thanks to hundreds of AI cameras positioned around the farm, kid goats like this one are saved. Photo: Weibo

Huang hopes to introduce his technology onto other farms in the coming months and years. Photo: Weibo

Kidnap city: botched Hong Kong abduction evokes memories of 1990s crime gangs who targeted top city tycoons and demanded billions in ransoms

The recent bungled abduction of a woman outside a maximum security prison in Hong Kong rekindled memories of 1990s kidnap gang leader “Big Spender” Cheung Tse-keung. Photo: SCMP Composite.

The recent attempted abduction of a woman outside a prison in Hong Kong led to many recalling the 1990s when the city was rocked by a series of spectacular kidnaps-for-ransom. Photo: SCMP composite

Three men grabbed and assaulted then bundled a woman into a van outside the maximum security Stanley Prison in Hong Kong. The woman was freed later the same day and her abductors arrested by police. Photo: Handout

Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, wearing glasses, who was kidnapped and held for a US$128 million ransom in 1996 by Cheung Tze-keung and his gang. Photo: Reuters

In 1997,  Hong Kong property tycoon Walter Kwok Ping-sheung fell victim to the kidnap-for-ransom gang led by “Big Spender” Cheung Tze-keung. Photo: AP

Cheung Tze-keung was executed in the mainland’s Guangdong province, which neighbours Hong Kong, in December 1998.

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People & Culture

Environment

Potentially deadly contaminated spinach has been pulled from shelves across Australia
While most of Hong Kong’s food is imported, globalised supply chains have opened up the world to contamination fears


Supermarkets and shops across Australia have been ordered to remove a potentially deadly batch of contaminated spinach from their shelves in a move that serves as a stark reminder of food scares that have hit Hong Kong in the past.


Trending in China