The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department today (January 21) urged the public not to consume certain soft cheese products, manufactured in Australia, which might have been contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The trade should stop selling the concerned products.
“The CFS noticed through its routine Food Incident Surveillance System that some cheese products produced by an Australian manufacturer, Jindi Cheese Pty Ltd, were suspected to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The concerned company is now voluntarily recalling all soft and semi-soft cheese products it manufactured on or before January 6 this year,” a spokesman for the CFS said.
“The CFS subsequently received notification from the International Food Safety Authorities Network of the World Health Organisation / the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations that some of the affected products have been imported to Hong Kong,” he added.
According to the information provided by the Australian authorities, the CFS has contacted two chain stores which had imported the affected products, namely PARKnSHOP and Pacific Gourmet. The shops were instructed to stop selling the products concerned (see attached table). The CFS was also informed that the companies had set up hotlines to answer consumers’ enquiries about the product recall, PARKnSHOP at 2606 8658 and Pacific Gourmet at 3184 0805.
“In case any consumers have bought the affected soft cheese products, they should stop eating them, regardless of batches. To be prudent, consumers who recently bought any cut portion of gourmet soft cheese and are unsure of the product details should also stop eating it. People are advised to seek medical advice if they feel sick after consuming the products concerned. So far the CFS has not received any reports of persons feeling unwell after consumption of the affected products,” the spokesman said.
FoodWorld 