Hongkongers told to avoid 2 kinds of Japanese baby biscuits over contamination fears
- Batch of Manna BOLO (Plain) biscuits and Manna BOLO (Vegetable) biscuits taken off shelves over concerns they contain animal faeces
Hong Kong authorities have urged residents to avoid two kinds of baby biscuits imported from Japan, as they may have been contaminated with animal faeces and have been taken off shelves.
The Centre for Food Safety announced on Friday evening that Japanese food manufacturer Morinaga had notified the government that two kinds of its baby biscuit products could have been contaminated with animal faeces.
The products in question were a batch of Manna BOLO (Plain) biscuits with a best-before date of June 26 next year, as well as Manna BOLO (Vegetable) biscuits with a best-before date of June 27 next year.
Both products were previously sold in major drugstore chains and supermarkets in the city. The importer is JFC Hong Kong.
“Upon learning of the incident, the centre immediately contacted the importer concerned for follow-up. According to the information it provided, the importer concerned has already stopped sales and removed from shelves the affected products, and voluntarily initiated recalls,” a spokesman for the centre said.
It did not elaborate on how the biscuits came to be possibly contaminated.
The spokesman urged residents to refrain from eating the products, while shops should stop selling them.
Family doctor Edmund Lam Wing-wo explained that the health impact on children upon eating the possibly contaminated biscuits would be “limited” as the amount of faeces ingested would be small if they had merely brushed the biscuit concerned.
But the doctor warned that faeces could contain E coli, parasites or other viruses, although he said most parasites and bacteria would die or become inactive in weeks after being ejected from an animal, thus reducing the risk to humans.
“If one has ingested something dirty, the immediate response, especially in babies, would be gastrointestinal discomfort,” Lam said. “This could be diarrhoea, stomach cramps, nausea or vomiting, which are humans’ defence mechanisms to get rid of germs.”
The doctor asked parents to be on the lookout for changes to their child’s appetite and stool form in the coming days, advising them to seek medical opinion if they noticed drastic changes.
Japanese media have reported that Morinaga had announced a voluntary recall of about 190,000 units of contaminated biscuits on Friday, following a customer complaint last week that foreign objects had been found in packets.
A Japanese media report said the object was found to be rat droppings.
Jasmine Chau, a mother of a two-year-old girl who regularly had the plain flavour of the biscuit, said she was not overly worried about the possible contamination.
“My daughter takes this biscuit every few days, and the portion each time is small,” Chau said. “So far she has not shown any discomfort after eating those biscuits.”
Chau said she had just bought a pack of the biscuit in question on Friday, but would discard the product after learning the news.
Additional report by Elizabeth Cheung
