Soggy eco-friendly spoon from Hong Kong fast-food chain goes viral online ahead of single-use plastics ban

Social media images show spoon from fast-food chain Cafe de Coral becoming deformed after patron gets halfway through bowl of noodle soup

Post reporter puts spoons to the test and finds utensils’ rate of warping depends on the dishes, with expert pointing to possible differences in moisture exposure

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Some users have asked how long the spoon was left in the bowl before the pictures were taken. Photo: Facebook/Sam Leung

Published: 9:00am, 7 Apr 2024Updated: 4:19pm, 7 Apr 2024

Viral images of a deformed paper spoon from a Hong Kong fast-food restaurant chain have sparked concerns over the safety and usability of alternatives to single-use plastic utensils ahead of a ban on their use later this month.

A food safety expert said makers of eco-friendly cutlery should introduce a heat tolerance labelling system to reassure caterers of the products’ quality.

“This kind of cutlery is basically not qualified if it will deform once exposed to heat,” said Vicki Fong Lai-ying, an associate professor of food science at the Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong.

Concerns about the quality of some eco-friendly utensils were sparked by a post to a Facebook group on Thursday showing an out-of-shape spoon from Cafe de Coral.

The images showed a customer trying to eat a bowl of noodle soup with the spoon, labelled “home compostable”.

The utensil appeared to bend from the neck down as the diner got halfway through the bowl and soon afterwards reached a point where it became useless.