Recently, the Centre for Food Safety of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department of Hong Kong issued an announcement stating that a batch of duck wings sold by Juewei Food (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Juewei Hong Kong") may be contaminated with the pathogenic bacterium Listeria monocytogenes, and requested to stop selling and remove the relevant products from the shelves. According to experts, if you eat food contaminated with listeria, you may experience symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, constipation and persistent fever, and you need to seek medical attention in time.
(Photo according to the Centre for Food Safety, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, Hong Kong)
The Hong Kong Food Safety Centre appeals to the public not to consume the food suspected to be contaminated
According to a notice issued by the Centre for Food Safety of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department of Hong Kong, a batch of prepackaged frozen rattan pepper-flavoured duck wings sold by Juewei Hong Kong was contaminated with the germs. On 10 May, a spokesman said that the CFS had collected the above-mentioned sample from a retail outlet in Mong Kok for testing under its routine food surveillance programme.
The test result showed that Listeria monocytogenes was detected in the 25-gram sample, exceeding the microbiological guidelines for food not to detect Listeria monocytogenes in the 25-gram food sample.
Regarding the batch of the product, the spokesman said that the CFS had informed the vendor concerned of the irregularity and instructed it to stop sale and remove from shelves the affected batch of the product. At present, the affected batch of the product has been recalled by the dealer concerned according to the CFS's instructions. At the same time, the CFS appealed to members of the public not to consume the batch of the product and to call the telephone for enquiries about the recall.
It is worth noting that the Centre for Food Safety of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department of Hong Kong has stated that it will notify the trade of the incident and will continue to follow up on the incident and take appropriate action, and the investigation is ongoing.
In response to the incident, on May 11, the relevant person in charge of Juewei Food responded to the media that Juewei Food attaches great importance to this incident, has set up a task force as soon as possible, and is actively cooperating with the Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department to investigate the cause of "rattan pepper-flavored duck wings" that may cause Listeria monocytogenes to exceed the standard. On the same day, Juewei Food recalled the product and handed it over to a third-party testing agency for testing, and the current test results show that it does not contain listeria.
For the latest investigation, the reporter of Future.com sent an interview letter to Juewei Food, but did not receive a reply by press time. Future.com will continue to pay attention to this event.
Juewei Food's duck wing products, not involved products (according to the official flagship store of Juewei duck neck)
Heating frozen food thoroughly, infection with Listeria monocytogenes can cause a variety of symptoms
Due to the removal of the shelf due to bacterial contamination of the tasteless food, "Listeria monocytogenes" has entered the attention of consumers. A spokesman for the Centre for Food Safety of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department of Hong Kong pointed out that Listeria monocytogenes can be easily destroyed at normal cooking temperatures, but can survive and multiply at refrigerated low temperatures.
Most people are relatively unfamiliar with "Listeria monocytogenes", food safety science popularization expert, national senior food inspector Wang Silu said in an interview with a reporter from Future.com that Listeria monocytogenes is a facultative anaerobic gram-positive bacillus, intracellular parasitic bacteria, arranged in a single or short chain. Listeria monocytogenes infects humans primarily through food, can inhabit the human intestine and is one of the deadliest foodborne pathogens. Listeria monocytogenes is the only species of the Listeria genus that regularly infects humans and can cause diarrhea, meningitis, and bacteremia.
In fact, Listeria monocytogenes is also a representative of "cold-tolerant bacteria" and is known as the "killer in the refrigerator". Wang Silu mentioned that many people think that the refrigerator is a "safe" and it is safe to put food in it, but Listeria monocytogenes is very tolerant to various environments (such as low temperature, high salt, low pH, oxidative stress, etc.) and can grow and multiply in the refrigerator for a long time.
Poisoning caused by Listeria usually occurs in summer and autumn, and Wang Silu said that the general population usually has symptoms such as diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, fever, headache and muscle pain 3 to 70 days (usually 21 days) after eating food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. People with weakened immunity are the key targets of listeria to attack, and immunodeficiency people, pregnant women, infants, the elderly, cancer patients, etc. are the most likely to be hit, and the symptoms after infection are more serious. After pregnant women are infected, Listeria monocytogenes can be transmitted to the fetus through the placenta, which may lead to miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth, neonatal sepsis and purulent meningitis, etc., and the mortality rate of neonatal infection is as high as 30%-70%.
The reporter noticed that since the beginning of this year, there have been a number of related cases of infection with Listeria monocytogenes. According to the "Digest Daily", recently, the Department of Neurology of Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University has admitted two cases of meningitis patients in a row. One of the cases had consumed homemade white fungus radish soup stored in the refrigerator several times in the week prior to the onset of symptoms, and the other had eaten inadequately heated refrigerated cooked meat before the onset of symptoms. After testing, the causative agent, Listeria monocytogenes, was found in both cases.
According to a report by China News Service, Taiwan's CDC announced Taiwan's first case of vertical transmission of Listeria monocytogenes from newborn mother-to-child in 2024 shows that as of May 6, the number of confirmed cases of listeriosis in Taiwan this year has accumulated 51, of which nearly eighty percent are elderly people over 60 years old.
In order to reduce the risk of listeriosis, Wang Silu suggested that kitchen utensils and refrigerators should be disinfected and cleaned regularly, and raw and cooked foods should be separated during cooking. In addition, Listeria monocytogenes is most afraid of high temperatures, and food can be killed by cooking well or heating to above 60°C in 5 to 20 minutes, so it is necessary to reheat frozen food thoroughly, and avoid eating or cook high-risk foods thoroughly before eating.
The net profit is not as good as the peak period, and the platform now has many complaints
It is understood that Juewei Food was listed in 2017, and in recent years, the number of stores and revenue scale have been expanding. Juewei Hong Kong is a subsidiary of Juewei Food, a listed company registered in Hong Kong.
According to public information, Juewei Food is mainly engaged in the development, production and sales of leisure marinated food, and its products are mainly sold through franchised stores. By the end of 2023, Juewei Food has 15,950 stores in Chinese mainland (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas markets), with a net increase of 244 stores for the year.
According to the reporter's 2023 financial report of Juewei Food, last year's revenue increased by 9.64% year-on-year to 7.261 billion yuan, and net profit increased by 46.63% year-on-year to 344 million yuan.
In fact, although last year achieved year-on-year growth, it is far from the peak net profit. In 2021, the net profit deducted from Juewei Food will be 719 million yuan, which means that the net profit attributable to the parent company of Juewei Food in 2023 will be far less than half of that in 2021.
(According to the black cat complaint)
At present, Juewei Food is caught in food safety problems, and at the same time, the reporter noticed on the black cat complaint platform that there are many complaints involving "Juewei duck neck" related products, involving deterioration, eating foreign objects, abnormal dates and other problems.
As of the close of trading on May 15, 2024, the share price of Juewei Food is 19.96 yuan per share, with a total market value of 12.374 billion yuan.
Source: Future.com