HK customs to probe Liu Ma Kee over potential trade description violations

Hong Kong customs will investigate whether the century-old fermented bean curd brand Liu Ma Kee (廖孖記) has violated the Trade Descriptions Ordinance, after it admitted it had been importing fermented bean curd from China 30 years ago instead of producing its own.

On Monday, Jay Liu (廖晃業), the fourth-generation owner of Liu Ma Kee, said on the Commercial Radio programme On a Clear Day (在晴朗的一天出發) that, Liu Ma Kee had ceased the local production of the white fermented bean curd after its Hong Kong factory was unable to meet the tightened sewage regulations.

He said even after setting up costly treatment equipment, his factory still did not manage to conform to the new regulations, which they chose to import the tofu from the mainland to maintain the operation.

However, he emphasised that the items are processed locally, including seasoning and packaging, before being sold to consumers.

As such, he emphasised that the products were “manufactured in Hong Kong,” as the whole manufacturing process involves at least five to six procedures, including further fermentation, seasoning, and filling in bottles, which were all done locally.

Liu apologised to the Centre for Food Safety for overreacting to their recent findings regarding its fermented bean curd product, citing the difficult situation his family had been in over the years to keep the business going.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong Customs has confirmed to local media outlets, such as RTHK and Sing Tao Headline, that it is following up on the Liu Ma Kee incident and will take appropriate enforcement action if it finds evidence of violations under the Trade Descriptions Ordinance.

It added that while the Trade Descriptions Ordinance does not legally require specific information to be provided on goods or their packaging, any trade descriptions marked on or attached to goods must be true and correct. Making false or misleading statements about goods may constitute an offense of false trade description and can result in a maximum fine of HK$500,000 and up to five years of imprisonment upon conviction.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Hong Kong Customs for a statement.

On the other hand, the incident has drawn mixed reactions among Hong Kong netizens. Media intelligence firm CARMA has observed over 15,000 mentions related to Liu Ma Kee since the Centre for Food Safety (CFS)’s announcement. Of these, 34% were negative and 6.9 were positive. 

Notably, recent posts on Liu Ma Kee’s official Facebook page have accumulated over 1,600 comments, said CARMA’s HK GM Charles Cheung. “Most netizens criticising the company for misleading and deceiving its customers by claiming their products are made locally, while in reality, they only repackaged preserved bean curd bought elsewhere.”

Many netizens believe Liu Ma Kee’s store would not have been abruptly closed if a family member had not challenged the government’s findings and blamed the authorities on TVB’s Scoop, Cheung added. 

"Some think the whole closure could have been avoided if the owner of Liu Ma Kee had rectified the production process and responded to customers requesting refunds. They also feel that the way the crisis was handled demonstrated poor management and a lack of transparency."

Earlier this month, the CFS revealed that a sample of bottled preserved bean curd from Liu Ma Kee contained an excessive amount of Bacillus cereus. Following the release, Liu’s mother participated in a TVB programme "Scoop" (東張西望), where she gave an interview criticising the CFS's inspection report as "unfair".

On 16 July, the CFS said it further collected the sample from a retail outlet in Yau Ma Tei on 9 July for testing. The test result showed that it still contained an unsatisfactory level of Bacillus cereus.

Shortly after, Liu Ma Kee announced it was shutting down. Last Saturday (20 July), the CFS held a press conference and shared its sampling investigation findings. It reported unsatisfactory hygiene conditions at Liu Ma Kee's production facility and revealed that the company did not actually produce the fermented bean curd on-site during the investigation period. Instead, they had purchased the product from another factory and then flavored and bottled it for sale.

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