A woman and her 20-year-old daughter claim they can no longer taste sweet things after eating potatoes from a ParknShop-operated supermarket.
Talking to Apple Daily, the woman, surnamed Chan, said she and her daughter ate two Japanese potatoes purchased from a Fusion supermarket in Heng Fa Chuen Estate in Chai Wan on September 17 last year.
Afterwards, Chan says she and her daughter noticed the spuds had a “chemical”, “medicinal” taste to them, and that the tips of their tongues were going numb. “We both felt like our throats were burning,” she said.
They immediately went to the doctor, got a refund from Fusion, and submitted the remaining raw potatoes for testing by the Department of Health and Food and Environmental Health Department.
The next day, Chan and her daughter returned to the hospital after the numbness in their tongues persevered, and were told they had food poisoning.
Analysis conducted by the Department of Health on the toxic tubers found that they contained 10.8 and 8.1 times more solanine and chaconine than in control specimens.
Solanine and chaconine are toxic glycoalkaloids which naturally occur in potatoes, tomatoes, and eggplants. An indicator of high solanine build-up in potatoes is green skin, whereas chaconine causes bitter-tasting flesh.
Chan’s urine was also found to contain “elevated levels” of solanine, but the Department of Health said “the signs and symptoms are not typical of [solanine] poisoning”, and that whether Chan’s condition was caused by her consumption of the potatoes “remains inconclusive”.
Since then, Chan claims neither she or her daughter can taste sweet foods. “My tongue’s been numb for half a year… it’s like it doesn’t even belong to me!” she exclaimed.
A spokesperson for ParknShop told Apple Daily that the company was “extremely concerned” about the matter and has passed it on to their customer service department. The supermarket giant has reportedly received no other complaints about overall food quality or that particular batch of Japanese potatoes.
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