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The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (July 26) that a quantity of frozen poultry products imported from the United Kingdom (UK) have been marked and sealed for the sake of prudence.
A spokesman for the CFS said, "The CFS is very concerned about media reports on the hygiene problems involving the processing plants of two poultry product companies in the UK, namely 2 Sisters Food Group and Faccenda Foods Ltd, and has taken immediate follow-up actions including verifying import information, contacting relevant local importers and retailers, and liaising with the Food Standards Agency of the UK to obtain further information."
"The CFS learnt that Marks & Spencer in Hong Kong has imported frozen cooked turkey and chicken products from 2 Sisters Food Group for production of several kinds of sandwiches and salads. Although the relevant poultry products did not come from the plants as reported, for the sake of prudence, Marks & Spencer has taken the initiative to take the relevant food products off the shelves and handed over 0.5 tonne of frozen cooked poultry products in their cold store to the CFS for mark-and-seal," he said.
"Furthermore, the CFS found that another importer, Sang Yick Foods Company Ltd, has imported frozen chicken paws from the Anglesey plant in Wales under 2 Sisters Food Group. The products concerned, totalling 1 666 cartons with a total weight of about 25 tonnes, were imported on June 26 this year and 103 cartons (about 1 tonne) of them have been distributed to retailers. The importer has voluntarily handed over the remaining about 24 tonnes stored in its cold store to the CFS for mark-and-seal."
The spokesman said preliminary information from the Food Standards Agency showed that the incident did not involve food safety issues and investigations by the UK authorities are still going on. Hence the off-shelf and mark-and-seal actions are precautionary measures. CFS staff will conduct checks to retailers to see if the affected products are available for sale in the market.
The CFS will alert the trade and remind local importers and vendors that they should stop sale and liaise with the CFS if they have imported or held any affected products, the spokesman said.
The CFS will continue to follow up on the incident and maintain close liaison with the trade and the relevant UK authorities and take appropriate actions accordingly.
Ends/Saturday, July 26, 2014
Issued at HKT 21:40
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