The government last week urged the public to avoid eating raw cow’s milk cheese from the French brand Morin.
The cheese, called Saint Nectaire Fermier, was found to be possibly contaminated by the Listeria monocytogenes bacteria.
For those unfamiliar with such dairy products, raw milk is unpasteurised and homogenised, for those who like their milk unsterile and straight out a cow’s warm udders, because… screw science and public health advances.
After the European Commission conducted tests and found a sample to be contaminated, they notified Hong Kong’s Centre for Food Safety (CFS).
The Hong Kong authorities then immediately told Hong Kong’s two suppliers – City Super Limited and The House of Fine Foods Limited – to recall the products.
The latter company says it has completed the recall. Citysuper customers can call (+852) 2736-3866 to enquire about the recall.
According to a CFS spokesman, the bacteria “can be easily destroyed by cooking but can survive and multiply at refrigerator temperature”.
Most healthy people would not develop symptoms or only experience mild ones, like some casual fever and vomiting.
However those with weaker immune systems, such as newborns or the elderly, could encounter serious complications.
The infection of pregnant women can also cause miscarriage.
Hey, remember when we invented pasteurisation? Wasn’t that great?
Photo: Fromageries Morin
