The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department today (June 26) announced that the carbohydrate content in a locally packed rice dumpling sample was found to be not consistent with the declared value on its nutrition label. Follow-up is in progress.
Product details are as follows:
Product name: Rice Dumpling with Salted Meat (2 pack)
Packer: Kai Bo Food Supermarket
Use-by date: September 1, 2015
"The CFS has earlier announced the test results of a seasonal food surveillance project on rice dumplings to provide timely information to consumers on the safe consumption of rice dumplings. All the 90 rice dumpling samples collected passed the chemical and microbiological tests. To ensure that pre-packaged food products comply with the requirements of the Nutrition Labelling Scheme, the Centre has also checked the nutrition labels of 21 pre-packaged rice dumpling samples from the market, including testing their nutrient content such as fat, sugars and sodium. A sample taken at Kai Bo Food Supermarket on Reclamation Street, Yau Ma Tei, was found to have a discrepancy between the declared carbohydrate content on its nutrition label (55.5 grams per 100g) and the actual content detected after chemical analysis (27.2g per 100g)," a spokesman for the CFS said.
According to the CFS' Technical Guidance Notes on Nutrition Labelling and Nutrition Claims, the tolerance limit for carbohydrate content was set at the level of not less than 80 per cent of the labelled value.
"The CFS has informed the vendor concerned of the irregularity and the vendor has voluntarily stopped selling and removed from shelves the affected batch of product. Prosecution will be instituted should there be sufficient evidence. The CFS is also tracing the distribution of the product concerned," the spokesman said.
According to Section 61 of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap 132), if any person falsely describes a food or misleads as to the nature, substance or quality of the food on a label of the food sold by him, he shall be guilty of an offence and be liable to a maximum fine of $50,000 and six months' imprisonment upon conviction.
The CFS is following up on the case and will take appropriate actions.
The spokesman added that members of the public should maintain a balanced diet. Rice dumplings in general are relatively high in energy, fat and salt. Sharing and controlling the portions of rice dumplings and limiting seasonings such as soy sauce or granulated sugar added to rice dumplings during consumption are recommended.