Centre for Food Safety

Shellfishes

Shellfishes harvested in production areas 35.11 and 35.06 in France

• The CFS received a notification from the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) of the European Commission that shellfishes harvested in the abovementioned areas which were suspected to be contaminated with norovirus were under recall.
• The CFS immediately followed up with major local importers and retailers. Preliminary investigation found that a local importer had imported not ready-to-eat mussels from the abovementioned areas into Hong Kong which were on sale in its supermarkets.

• For the sake of prudence, the CFS has immediately suspended the import into and sale within Hong Kong of all shellfishes harvested in the two areas concerned.
• The importer concerned had already voluntarily stopped sale and removed from shelves of the affected product for the sake of prudence.
• The CFS is tracing the distribution of the affected product.
• The CFS has informed the French authorities of the import suspension and will also notify the local trade.
• The CFS will continue to follow up on the incident and take appropriate action to safeguard food safety and public health.

Stop using or selling the affected product harvested in the abovementioned areas concerned immediately.

• One may be infected by norovirus or other pathogenic microorganism if consuming undercooked shellfish which is contaminated. So, shellfish should be thoroughly cooked before consumption.
• Young children, elderly people, pregnant women and others with weakened immune systems should pay special attention when consuming shellfish.

The CFS press release