Regarding two suspected food poisoning clusters announced on 8 August , the Centre for Food Safety has conducted a preliminary investigation and has the following recommendations for food premises' reference:

Food poisoning cases
  • The first cluster involved four males and four females, aged
    seven to 44.
  • The second cluster involved six males and four females,
    aged five to 71.
Location of alleged food premises Sai Kung
Suspected incriminated food item
  • Hainanese chicken
  • Fried siu mai
  • Curry fish ball and pork skin
  • Fried udon with BBQ pork
  • Fried pork chop
Suspected contributing factors
  • Improper holding temperature
  • Contamination of cooked foods by utensil s and raw foods
  • Inadequate reheating
Advice
  • The management should provide training to food handlers so that they can fully understand the risk of cross contamination in handling raw food and observe good personal hygiene (e.g. proper and frequent hand washing) to prevent cross contamination.
  • Cook food thoroughly until the core temperature reaches at least 75°C.
  • Raw food should not be carried to the food handling area for handling cooked/ready to eat food.
  • Use separate utensils to handle raw food and coo ked/ready to eat food.
  • For hot food, keep them at above 60°C.
  • For cold food, keep them at or below 4°C.
  • Ideally, install two refrigerators for storing raw food and cooked/ready to eat food separately.
  • For delivered foods, b oth food premises and delivery agents are advised to work together to meet the time temperature control requirements
  • Shorten the time the delivered foods left out of temperature control and remind customers to consume as soon as possible where appropriate.

Centre for Food Safety
9/8/2022