What’s in a lobster ball? That’s hard to tell, Hong Kong watchdog warns, but it’s definitely not lobster
- Consumer Council samples 10 lobster ball brands, DNA results show none contain traces of crustacean
- Council chair also warns consumers with ‘religious dietary restrictions’ to check ingredients after finding 65 per cent of beef balls contain traces of pork or chicken
Don’t expect to find any lobster in your lobster balls. The hotpot favourite does not necessarily contain any ingredients from lobsters, Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog has found, while 75 per cent of meatballs sampled had high levels of sodium and most contained other types of meat.
DNA tests by the Consumer Council found none of the 10 samples of lobster balls it collected contained any traces of the crustacean.
Professor Nora Tam Fung-yee, chairwoman of the council’s research and testing committee, on Monday said it was hard to tell what exactly “lobster balls” contained.
“We found some other ingredients … that might be other seafood or even meat-type ingredients … but our tests focused on [finding] lobster-related DNA, so we only know that lobster balls do not contain crustacean DNA,” she said.
The council added one product from frozen seafood importer iEat had incorrectly listed “lobster” in its ingredients.
The importer issued an apology to any affected consumers and law enforcement agencies, explaining the error was the result of internal operations.