Food inspectors began testing mainland hairy crabs in Hong Kong yesterday after a Taiwanese report that a crab sample on the island contained an antibiotic that can cause liver damage in excessive amounts.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said it would also test hairy crabs for malachite green, the cancer-causing fungicide that has been found recently in eels and freshwater fish from the mainland.
Taiwan's ETToday cable news channel commissioned the test, which found a hairy crab brought from a stall in Taipei contained a level of chloramphenicol that was 10 times above the safe level.
Use of the antibiotic in aquarium products is banned in Taiwan.
'We have learned about the report from the TV media and need further investigation into the matter,' said a Taiwan Health Department official.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department in Hong Kong said it was aware of the Taiwan report and would start checking crab samples for the antibiotic. It tested 54 samples last year - all were satisfactory in terms of the allowable levels of antibiotics, heavy metals and fungi.
The department began surveillance of the winter delicacy, mainly imported from Jiangsu province , in 2001 after a magazine report found they were contaminated with two antibiotics, chloramphenicol and oxytetracycline.
