Watchdog warns of peanut-butter poison danger - Hong Kong Standard
Ayra Wang
Sixty percent of peanut butter samples were detected to have contained liver-damaging aflatoxins, with two samples exceeding the EU limit, the Consumer Council found.
The city's consumer watchdog tested 20 samples of popular peanut butter brands and found that 60 percent of them contained aflatoxins, which could cause acute and chronic poisoning in animals and humans.
These toxins could lead to acute liver damage, cirrhosis, cancer and even death, chairman of the council's publicity and community relations committee Kyrus Siu King-wai said yesterday.
Aflatoxins were detected in 12 samples at levels ranging from 0.23 to 4.94 micrograms per kilogram (?g/kg), with none of them exceeding the requirement stipulated in the harmful substances in food regulations, which requires that aflatoxins cannot exceed 10 ?g per kilogram.
The council detected aflatoxin B1 in two samples - Yowe creamy peanut butter (priced at HK$4.40 per 100 grams) and Fuyuan peanut butter (priced at HK$20.30 per 100 grams).
Yowe's sample contained 2.01?g/kg while Fuyuan's contained 4.27?g/kg. Both exceeded the EU's limit of two ?g/kg for aflatoxin B1.
Aflatoxin levels of Fuyuan's sample also exceeded the EU limit of four ?g to 4.94 ?g.
"Aflatoxins cannot be broken down easily during the normal cooking process and among them, aflatoxin B1 is classified as a human carcinogen," Siu said.
Chief executive of consumer council Gilly Wong Fung-han urged consumers to be vigilant about aflatoxins.
"Long-term ingestion of aflatoxins and over-ingestion in a short period will both lead to poisoning and even death," Wong said.
She further urged the government to set up limits for aflatoxin B1 in food, as Hong Kong now only limits the content of aflatoxin B1 in baby food.
"We hope the government could refer to the standards of different countries and follow the international trend of limits on aflatoxin," Wong added.
The watchdog also reminded customers to consume peanut butter as little as possible, as results show that 95 percent of samples are high in fat.
A total of 19 samples contained more than 30g fat content per 100g, ranging from 37.9g to 52.8g, and were classified as high fat according to the Center for Food Safety.
"It may lead to obesity if people have peanut butter every day," Wong said.
The council reminded consumers to store peanut butter in a cool and dry place away from direct sunlight and finish it within two to three months after opening.
It also called on people to immediately discard peanut butter if it tastes rancid, which means the product has gone bad.
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