Remember those Taiwanese sandwiches that Citysuper advertised as having “extraordinary taste buds”? Turns out they also have extraordinarily high levels of germs, because Hong Kong’s just banned them after 46 people got food poisoning from eating them.
“Hung Rui Chen” (or Horng Ryen Jen, whichever phonetic transcription system you use) sandwiches are imported from Taiwan and were sold online (e.g. Groupon), at exhibition booths, shopping malls and supermarkets.
The 46 victims experienced symptoms such as diarrhoea, abdominal pain, vomiting and fever between six and 31 hours after eating the sandwiches between July 25 and 30.
For “the sake of prudence”, the Centre for Food Safety decided to ban all Hung Rui Chen sandwiches from being imported into or sold in Hong Kong.
According to the law, “all food for sale in Hong Kong, whether locally produced or imported, should be fit for human consumption”, which seems fair enough.
Any offender can be punished by a fine of up to HKD50,000 and six months’ imprisonment.
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