@@FatBunny168 when I was in Hong Kong recently, I found tons of small shops operating in such similar conditions. Their explanation - it adds to the appeal and character of Hong Kong!
No one wants to talk about it, but world class HK always had a hygiene problem. The problems range from markets, food courts, unsightly buckets of dishes washed in alleyways, hot water to sterilize utensils, live poultry, bad tempered workers who don't care. At one restaurant, diners sat on what looked like oil containers. I found a cockroach on a restaurant dining table.
My wife studied food technology and has small caned food business, to preserve any food especially fermented you need to have sterile place to do so, everything needs to be sterilized from cans to all surfaces of tables, machines, people need to use gloves, masks, and even proper clothes for such things, if you do at home you should keep it for eating for yourself and not selling, fermented canned food can go bad and build lots of bacteria witch is deadly after consuming, we had insident in my country where person preserved mushrooms and didn't properly sealed jar and sterilized it, after eating he got sick and sadly died.
I work in microbiology. as a hobby, I make alcohol and other fermented products. Cooking food yes, but for making certain other fermented food, you merely have a condition that is adversarial to everything else. When I work in medicine, yes, fermenting food, I do not do all that stuff. pour tons of salt to make Kimchi, Heck no. Making wine,. No. I do get pour results in Red yeast rice and should do some of the stuff. as for the tofu. Not sure what mold, but some of the problem is changes in technology, that people don't know of. I have a friend who research food storage, and the problem is , instead of food being stored in local warehouses, they all get sent to one giant warehouse, and all get cross contaminated.
you are so correct. it is the same with making cheese or yoghurt. you need to bring clean bacteria in a clean environment. otherwise can expect surprises
@@Dinhi-gq9rb Who is cheated and scammed by my comment please explain, also please elaborate on what my wife studied if you think its BS because it seems some complete stranger like you knows more about my wife than i do.
@@Krahamus stop talking nonsense, and you have no evidence your wife does any of that and from how you speak, you likely don't have one or she is cheating on you
I have a tangent : It's essentially what Biden administration done to American oil production. For the sake of environment, he made ridiculously strict regulations and requirements, and when the domestic oil producers cannot cope with it, he satisfied American oil demand by buying it from other countries that have fewer regulations and restrictions on oil production impact to the environment. American got worse. Environment got worse. And Biden got bragging point. That's what Hong Kong did with their waste water treatment regulations and Liu Ma Kee's fateful decision to import tofu from China..
In the past people often from unknown causes and the median death age isn't as old. As much as I othen don't like food safety authority but Hong Kong does have one of the highest life expectancy
Were there reports of people falling sick after eating the products? The symptoms reported are very obvious and I imagined rather immediate once the consumer ate it.
Pretty sure fermented tofu processing is about introducing the toxins into the tofu. It is basically a rotten tofu, if you never consume it yet or know how it is processed since ages ago without this "modern" processing.
Their fermented tofu was stopped from uk imports because of said high levels of this bacteria over 20 years ago. I was surprised to see it on the shelves again in the uk last year.
If they actually care about their customers and quality control then they should have opened a facliity in China and make it there themselves. Don't blame others and make poor excuses if you don't test the finished product yourselves, especially when it is sold as your own brand. At the very end, they are still trying to shift the blame onto others-very poor attitude.
if they opened a factory in china the product would be contaminated and not fit for consumption like all the other fake, toxic food that plagues china.
The problems involves only themselves. The tofu from mainland China is also used in other brands and there are no problems with that so it is their fermenting process done in Hong Kong that is the problem.
Which bit was that? I thought they insisted the manufacture (of the further 6 steps) was in Hong Kong in order to show their product supported the local economy. Oh or do you mean the bit where they said authorities tested a tampered batch?
If the main production is done in China, then you have no control over quality, the production stages, the transportation stages etc. can add unknown factors to your products, so unless you are doing your very own quality control after receiving the half made samples, you are almost doom to fail.
The Most important thing to do in food business is correcting your food mistakes. What else can you do ? Complaining whether being a fatalist on reputation is just pointless .
Wonder whether those bottles of the product in all importing countries are "bad" as well? Strange that there's no news from their Food & Safety division or a recall being activated by the distributors. Is this a hoax?
The whole industry of Chinese "blue cheese" is now affected because of LMK. Many will face hardship for the public might stay away until they are assured of its quality and there's quality control.
My mom loves that stuff! She can't live without it. Outsourcing product from china is not the problem. It's done all the time. Labeling origin of ingredients is important. How LMK handled a crisis is the issue. Be transparent, open, and working with authorities is the key.
as someone who works in microbiology. 100,000 and 130,000 is about the same number. We do not measure bacteria that way, we measure it logarithmically. now more than 10X is something else .
@@gribbler1695 I wonder if the bacteria in fermented tofu are dormant? It's a salty product, after all. Maybe it doesn't matter if the jars are full with bacteria, as long as they are dormant and cannot produce their toxin. The video didn't tell us whether there were any people hospitalized from eating fermented tofu.
How is this a controversy? One shop, producing an unsafe product, was shut down by health authorities. This is like,,the least controversial news. Unsafe food being removed from the market should be the least "controversial" thing you report.
@@Trund27that’s like 90% of food in Hong Kong. They all import raw material from mainland China and process it locally in HK. As long as they properly test them or set their own factories inside mainland for quality control it’s not a big deal.
Another part of the controversy is their narrative differs from that of the official's. e.g. The department stated staff presented themselves as just customers and do not reveal their identity to shop owners, but shop owners could identify government staff and gave them the special batch, etc. And the shop owners claim they were taught by the health staff and a medical doctor they brought along on how to make the product (resulting in the 12x contamination special batch), which the department denies ever doing.
the name is "fermented" and it is home industry, what do you expect with bacteria level issue? it is not like they test each bottle for bacteria content. for sure, if food safety wants to be strict, they should also check all fermented vegetables, pickles, etc which become daily condiment for porridge.. Have there been reports of people having digestive issues because of eating the tofu?
Because the product is fermented that makes it even more important to do things properly because it's even more difficult to smell or taste anything off with it. It seemed they weren't doing things in a sterile enough way to make sure bacteria levels weren't dangerously high.
@@kaihocompany As someone else pointed out in other comments, with the bacteria count that high, someone are bound to get sick. Are there? If not, then maybe the regulation itself are too strict. Another thing to consider, people in other comments said fermented tofu is a salty product. Maybe the salt made the bacteria dormant in the jar? That also can explain why there are no sick people.
Tofu Moonshine. As a Cantonese, I find it quite difficult and saddening that this happened. I do believe in its past batches were completely fine. But I assume in its recent years, it's current batches were cross contaminated by recent outings or from new ingredients with poor handling. Being in the food business in general always makes it hard to keep quality, supply, and demand well balanced all the time as there's no shortcuts. Cutting corners or being sloppy even for a second will be our downfall. It is the fate of all food producers on Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary levels.
So something is wrong with the temperature is what I'm getting.?.?.? Also it was immediately pulled. However, why the hoopla about the tofu being from the mainland and not Hong Kong? Is it less safe than if made in Hong Kong??
So what if some ingredients were imported from China, they are the ones ultimately preparing the end product. SCMP, stop with the insinuations and bashing.
The company should also learn like so many Hong Kong local and foreign companies once-upon-a-time based in PRChina and Hong Kong to relocate elsewhere esp. to other South East Asia Countries, perhaps, even to Taiwan ROC or Malaysia or Indonesia where there are thriving local foods manufacturers. However, forget about Singapore, the locale is just too expensive to produce such non-high-value food items.
No one wants to talk about it, but world class HK always had a hygiene problem. The problems range from markets, food courts, unsightly buckets of dishes washed in alleyways, hot water to sterilize utensils, live poultry, bad tempered workers who don't care. At one restaurant, diners sat on what looked like oil containers. I found a cockroach on a restaurant dining table.
Back in my college years, one of my college budget foods was to smear one cube of these tofu looking fermented stuff onto steaming hot rice. It has a super strong taste to it.
Horrible news. Is the company so unscrupulous as to "poison" their loyal customers? Unforgivable. Not only it. All other manufacturers will be affected as the public's will avoid eating fermented tofu for sure.
😮🙏 Liu Ma Kee must employed Food Safety Professionals to analyze & monitor their products to ensure Proper Food Safety Requirement for their customers ... 🙏🕯🌏✌🕊
It's too bad an established brand has to shut down and seems the better direction would be to step it up - build a facility that could do its own testing. a lot of fermented foods are classified as superfoods
I remembered my dad and sister used this a lot and say it always makes the food tastier. I believe I just brought a new bottle of this a month ago and have not used it. Going to take a quick look and throw it in the trash just to be safe.
That's what high end tech take place, the femented tofu industry have studied decades to only preserve needed bacteria and elimate harmful bacteria. They found harmful one in mentioned brand.
theres a lot of bad and fake products out there! thank you hong kong food safeth department for always being vigilant checking products that are imported and made at home. keep our elders safe! they eat this fuyu the most. not me so much! its funky!!
It seems their problem started when they had to use chinese tofu instead of Hong Kong tofu. Also did any 3 party made analsys on the tofu? Or all were government laboratories? 🤔
If the owner want to get back into business they should get the food certification with annual audit on the food processing, and final product food sample taken on microbes testing to obtain the toxicology reports like a CoC. Paying additional fees to adhere the food safety standards and guidelines better than making customers falls ill or worst, even death.
@@andrewbirch Brainwashed remark. After the new national security law was established a few years ago (nearly identical to western nations), most of the UK/US perverts and troublemakers that organized the riots and lied to for centuries to the public were sent packing home. Peace came to Hong Kong. Unfortunately the English/Nato alliance have spread their cancer to Ukraine and Gaza, and trying to create more problems in the South Chna Sea with Taiwan. Sigh...despicable war-mongering perverts since time immemmorial.
I buy this brand here in New York City all the time. I have never gotten sick after eating it. Is the HK government's claim about it being unsafe legit?
What did they base the level of bacteria. How about Korean Kimchi what is the level of bacteria of fermented food, not only that but of all fermented foods world wide? What a load of BS
Actually many food products are contaminated by this type of bacteria but if there's too much present & above the regulated safety level, then there's a higher risk of food poisoning. I think if any kimchi tested that's contaminated by a high level of this bacteria, they would get in trouble too.
Sad to see them go, since their levels of sodium are relatively lower than other brands. This consequence was bound to occur, since production went overseas, and bootleg product is rampant for this brand. That is why I switched over to the Pearl River Bridge brand.
It's the low sodium and expensive Hong Kong production that killed this brand. If they stick with traditional saltier method and move production to cheaper area on the mainland, they would have been fine
@@Peizxcv low sodium make the taste more gentle and flavourable for elderly. but its much harder to maintain the quality. have you heard of "CEO bean curd" of Yung Kee?
@@slewone4905 it is but it is not just a preservative. It also carry a savoury taste and affects the flvaour. In modern society it is so easy to get a chemical preservative if you just want to preserve something. So it needs much more skill to make low sodium version bean curd, as mentioned before the " director's bean curd" of Yung Kee(typo above as "CEO bean curd"). It is much praised as compared to those super salty rough-made bean curds
Actually Hong Kong Government could indeed help the brand to produce it locally in Hong Kong under better conditions!~Instead of attacking each other, they could have approached the matter silently, they could have taken the product of the markets discreetly, improved the facilities in HK, helped the owners to produce it in the city and then sell it with an improved design and hygiene standards. The way they did it was terrible. Now, not only the brand will probably never recover, but this iconic product will be associated with this terrible issue.
I always wonder HK needs to import food from the evil Chinese. Seeing how HK has vast amount of farming and agricultural land and abundant fresh water resource
@@lyhthegreat You're a lying wumao. Everybody and their grandmother knows that HK grows all their food themselves and whatever they lack they gott for free directly from Queen Elizabeth and now Great King Charles
Having subtitles is pretty standard practice...do you have something against people who turn their volume low or those who are hearing impaired or what?
I don't believe it's the HK FDA that's putting pressure on them, it's more likely they're trying to make a profit in light of inflation that's hitting the world, and they decide to outsource production of their product to save money, which caused the quality to dipped and ruined the brand's reputation completely.
methods used 50-120 years ago may not suit current day regulations hence manufacturers have to evolve and improve their process. Would they like to buy a car TV that uses the same manufacturing methods 50 years ago? If you can't improve, you're outdated.
I thought he was looking for some to test independently. Was kind of disappointed that he didn't do that. I trust the Chinese government as far as I can throw it
I’m far away, but it appears that the product went from safe to dangerous in one test. The authorities should explain why earlier test results were apparently all negative. And there is no mention of any complaints! Something about this seems pretty fishy.
The authority also didn't explain whether the bacteria were active or dormant. If the bacteria were dormant (the product is salty), they couldn't produce any toxin that make people sick.
Importing tofu from mainland China. This is the literal definition of tofu dreg. No wonder there is s-loads of bacteria in the tofu. It’s mainland tofu. Have they not been doing bacteria tests for the last 30 years?!?!
If this brand stick with traditional saltier method and move production to cheaper area on the mainland, they would have been fine. They try to cater to the healthier (less sodium) and fancier (HK made) crowd and doomed themselves because less salt and cramp run-down old house is not a modern factory
Government: "It's bad"
Shop owner: "Try again. I dare you"
Government: "Oh, you're right. It's actually 10 times worse!"
just look at their tiny house.....how could they keep the equipment sterilized?
@@FatBunny168 when I was in Hong Kong recently, I found tons of small shops operating in such similar conditions. Their explanation - it adds to the appeal and character of Hong Kong!
@@dennischen8887 also add infection agents LOL
No one wants to talk about it, but world class HK always had a hygiene problem. The problems range from markets, food courts, unsightly buckets of dishes washed in alleyways, hot water to sterilize utensils, live poultry, bad tempered workers who don't care.
At one restaurant, diners sat on what looked like oil containers. I found a cockroach on a restaurant dining table.
@@sitoudien9816😂😂😂 you made that up. Why is it in the west there is the most disease and of kids eh?
My wife studied food technology and has small caned food business, to preserve any food especially fermented you need to have sterile place to do so, everything needs to be sterilized from cans to all surfaces of tables, machines, people need to use gloves, masks, and even proper clothes for such things, if you do at home you should keep it for eating for yourself and not selling, fermented canned food can go bad and build lots of bacteria witch is deadly after consuming, we had insident in my country where person preserved mushrooms and didn't properly sealed jar and sterilized it, after eating he got sick and sadly died.
I work in microbiology. as a hobby, I make alcohol and other fermented products.
Cooking food yes, but for making certain other fermented food, you merely have a condition that is adversarial to everything else. When I work in medicine, yes, fermenting food, I do not do all that stuff. pour tons of salt to make Kimchi, Heck no. Making wine,. No. I do get pour results in Red yeast rice and should do some of the stuff. as for the tofu. Not sure what mold, but some of the problem is changes in technology, that people don't know of. I have a friend who research food storage, and the problem is , instead of food being stored in local warehouses, they all get sent to one giant warehouse, and all get cross contaminated.
you are so correct. it is the same with making cheese or yoghurt. you need to bring clean bacteria in a clean environment. otherwise can expect surprises
@@Krahamus can't believe so many are cheated and scammed by a comment about 'his wife studied...' BS
@@Dinhi-gq9rb Who is cheated and scammed by my comment please explain, also please elaborate on what my wife studied if you think its BS because it seems some complete stranger like you knows more about my wife than i do.
@@Krahamus stop talking nonsense, and you have no evidence your wife does any of that and from how you speak, you likely don't have one or she is cheating on you
Heritage brand gone overnight due to bad business practice
I have a tangent :
It's essentially what Biden administration done to American oil production. For the sake of environment, he made ridiculously strict regulations and requirements, and when the domestic oil producers cannot cope with it, he satisfied American oil demand by buying it from other countries that have fewer regulations and restrictions on oil production impact to the environment. American got worse. Environment got worse. And Biden got bragging point.
That's what Hong Kong did with their waste water treatment regulations and Liu Ma Kee's fateful decision to import tofu from China..
I remember back 3-4 decades, Liu Ma Kee, was the premium brand of fermented bean curd sold here in the States. Sad to see another HK icon disappear.
same
i sometimes see it
but now its gone
Why do you Chinese people like to eat smelly foods? It's so disgusting!
Thanks china
Chinese like to eat nasty smelly foods
@@PCB389 Hong Kong is China. Deal with it Brit.
120 years and no report of food poisoning?...
I thought exactly lol
That's the thing. No one reported
coz the effect are not immediate to body.
@@blurdreamer What do you mean by not immediate to body ? Would you kindly provide the evidence for what you are referring to ?
In the past people often from unknown causes and the median death age isn't as old. As much as I othen don't like food safety authority but Hong Kong does have one of the highest life expectancy
Lesson is, don't challenge the authority if you're not above board. Because they will double-down even harder on you.
Coke - Cola has been doing for years and No powerful nations can suits them in Supreme court.
What...it was pulled right after the first testing.
Double down or not, it's firstly based on data and facts
Dont lose your 100 years old business by not paying the right people and arguing with them.
Goodwill takes decades to build and seconds to destroy.
Like a medieval Lego castle
Were there reports of people falling sick after eating the products? The symptoms reported are very obvious and I imagined rather immediate once the consumer ate it.
sensible question but you are part of the minority in this stage.
@@KitFat-g3s It's ... minority report. 😅
Anything fermented can become toxic if done carelessly.
Pretty sure fermented tofu processing is about introducing the toxins into the tofu. It is basically a rotten tofu, if you never consume it yet or know how it is processed since ages ago without this "modern" processing.
Their fermented tofu was stopped from uk imports because of said high levels of this bacteria over 20 years ago. I was surprised to see it on the shelves again in the uk last year.
Probably because of Brexit. The rules are less strict when you were in the EU
If they actually care about their customers and quality control then they should have opened a facliity in China and make it there themselves. Don't blame others and make poor excuses if you don't test the finished product yourselves, especially when it is sold as your own brand. At the very end, they are still trying to shift the blame onto others-very poor attitude.
if they opened a factory in china the product would be contaminated and not fit for consumption like all the other fake, toxic food that plagues china.
The problems involves only themselves. The tofu from mainland China is also used in other brands and there are no problems with that so it is their fermenting process done in Hong Kong that is the problem.
Which bit was that? I thought they insisted the manufacture (of the further 6 steps) was in Hong Kong in order to show their product supported the local economy. Oh or do you mean the bit where they said authorities tested a tampered batch?
2:31 the base ingredient beancurd (tofu) is imported but it is fermented in HK to make the final fermented product
Factory and China are words that don't feel right
If the main production is done in China, then you have no control over quality, the production stages, the transportation stages etc. can add unknown factors to your products, so unless you are doing your very own quality control after receiving the half made samples, you are almost doom to fail.
The Most important thing to do in food business is correcting your food mistakes. What else can you do ?
Complaining whether being a fatalist on reputation is just pointless .
Here after binging on Chinese dramas.
"Must be the CEO exacting his revenge to the one who offended his lady and/or his quintuplets."
Wonder whether those bottles of the product in all importing countries are "bad" as well?
Strange that there's no news from their Food & Safety division or a recall being activated by the distributors. Is this a hoax?
Where's the factory? Shouldn't they be inspecting the factory?
2:25
'and resold it with additives introduced under poor hygiene conditions'
nothing to see here folks, just a crumbling business shutting down
The whole industry of Chinese "blue cheese" is now affected because of LMK. Many will face hardship for the public might stay away until they are assured of its quality and there's quality control.
It's not crumbling. It's a collapse.
Ironically, I came to watch something related to that.
My mom loves that stuff! She can't live without it.
Outsourcing product from china is not the problem. It's done all the time. Labeling origin of ingredients is important. How LMK handled a crisis is the issue. Be transparent, open, and working with authorities is the key.
in the past, it still can be found in Indonesia, i usually eat it with porridge
This is just so sad.
The question is , was it always like that and nobody bothered testing the product?
Or what could be the cause?
Maybe the tofu they imported is not meant to be processed further.
No. This is almost certainly a problem that can be fixed during fermentation or bottling.
Why do i feel like theyre trying to divert attention from something else with this video
were there ANY reports of people getting sick from the fermented tofu.
I’m sure the insane record summer heat going through HK the last month didn’t help shelf life either.
as someone who works in microbiology. 100,000 and 130,000 is about the same number.
We do not measure bacteria that way, we measure it logarithmically. now more than 10X is something else .
It's still at the upper limit of safe.
@@gribbler1695 I wonder if the bacteria in fermented tofu are dormant? It's a salty product, after all. Maybe it doesn't matter if the jars are full with bacteria, as long as they are dormant and cannot produce their toxin. The video didn't tell us whether there were any people hospitalized from eating fermented tofu.
How about the other fermented tofu ? Don't control only one brand.
They tested 26 brands and only 2 brands (including this brand) are not up to standards
How is this a controversy? One shop, producing an unsafe product, was shut down by health authorities. This is like,,the least controversial news. Unsafe food being removed from the market should be the least "controversial" thing you report.
The controversy is how they presented the product. They import from mainland China, which isn’t how they presented the product.
If anything, the part about how their bacteria level went from bad to worse AFTER the instructions from the authorities sounds all the more strange...
@@Trund27that’s like 90% of food in Hong Kong. They all import raw material from mainland China and process it locally in HK. As long as they properly test them or set their own factories inside mainland for quality control it’s not a big deal.
Another part of the controversy is their narrative differs from that of the official's. e.g. The department stated staff presented themselves as just customers and do not reveal their identity to shop owners, but shop owners could identify government staff and gave them the special batch, etc. And the shop owners claim they were taught by the health staff and a medical doctor they brought along on how to make the product (resulting in the 12x contamination special batch), which the department denies ever doing.
I used to eat this a lot when I was little, sad.
Does any other independent researcher verified/tested the claim?
I knew it. There's no way they can produce enough for worldwide distribution at that little shop in HK. We used to buy them in the US.
Lai,u suggest one brand that can replace this hk brand.i love fermented tofu,where or what brand should i buy.
The beginning of the end, no more fermented tofu for you. Eat your FDA approved SPAM, paid for by the SPAM corrupted companies. Yield and obey.
Given the lack of reports of illness (at least in this video), I'm inclined to believe there's more to this story.
Hum, why not report the controversy with China's brand 農夫山泉
What controversy?
How is it possible they dont have a QA lab to test their food products?
you would be surprised to know that for most F&B products in Asia, QA lab isn't really a necessity or norm.
Asia are mostly barbaric and primitive compared to civilized western standards
QA lab ? They admitted they don’t even make the tofu.
You never know if Chinese authorities didn't just want to punish someone or if this is legit.
The reporter was perfect match for the subject
the name is "fermented" and it is home industry, what do you expect with bacteria level issue? it is not like they test each bottle for bacteria content. for sure, if food safety wants to be strict, they should also check all fermented vegetables, pickles, etc which become daily condiment for porridge.. Have there been reports of people having digestive issues because of eating the tofu?
Because the product is fermented that makes it even more important to do things properly because it's even more difficult to smell or taste anything off with it.
It seemed they weren't doing things in a sterile enough way to make sure bacteria levels weren't dangerously high.
@@kaihocompany As someone else pointed out in other comments, with the bacteria count that high, someone are bound to get sick. Are there? If not, then maybe the regulation itself are too strict.
Another thing to consider, people in other comments said fermented tofu is a salty product. Maybe the salt made the bacteria dormant in the jar? That also can explain why there are no sick people.
Tofu Moonshine.
As a Cantonese, I find it quite difficult and saddening that this happened. I do believe in its past batches were completely fine. But I assume in its recent years, it's current batches were cross contaminated by recent outings or from new ingredients with poor handling.
Being in the food business in general always makes it hard to keep quality, supply, and demand well balanced all the time as there's no shortcuts. Cutting corners or being sloppy even for a second will be our downfall. It is the fate of all food producers on Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary levels.
130,000/g at first, but 1.3m/g later? Which is true??
Both are true; they are different samples.
So something is wrong with the temperature is what I'm getting.?.?.? Also it was immediately pulled. However, why the hoopla about the tofu being from the mainland and not Hong Kong? Is it less safe than if made in Hong Kong??
So what if some ingredients were imported from China, they are the ones ultimately preparing the end product. SCMP, stop with the insinuations and bashing.
The company should also learn like so many Hong Kong local and foreign companies once-upon-a-time based in PRChina and Hong Kong to relocate elsewhere esp. to other South East Asia Countries, perhaps, even to Taiwan ROC or Malaysia or Indonesia where there are thriving local foods manufacturers. However, forget about Singapore, the locale is just too expensive to produce such non-high-value food items.
No one wants to talk about it, but world class HK always had a hygiene problem. The problems range from markets, food courts, unsightly buckets of dishes washed in alleyways, hot water to sterilize utensils, live poultry, bad tempered workers who don't care.
At one restaurant, diners sat on what looked like oil containers. I found a cockroach on a restaurant dining table.
Back in my college years, one of my college budget foods was to smear one cube of these tofu looking fermented stuff onto steaming hot rice. It has a super strong taste to it.
🤣
Yum! Chinese cheese.
Horrible news. Is the company so unscrupulous as to "poison" their loyal customers? Unforgivable.
Not only it. All other manufacturers will be affected as the public's will avoid eating fermented tofu for sure.
😮🙏 Liu Ma Kee must employed Food Safety Professionals to analyze & monitor their products to ensure Proper Food Safety Requirement for their customers ... 🙏🕯🌏✌🕊
It's too bad an established brand has to shut down and seems the better direction would be to step it up - build a facility that could do its own testing.
a lot of fermented foods are classified as superfoods
I remembered my dad and sister used this a lot and say it always makes the food tastier. I believe I just brought a new bottle of this a month ago and have not used it. Going to take a quick look and throw it in the trash just to be safe.
But the bacteria flavor is what we like. The question is did people get sick or has died from the bean curd?
Isn't the bacteria used to actually used to ferment the tofu?
These are different bacterias
That's what high end tech take place, the femented tofu industry have studied decades to only preserve needed bacteria and elimate harmful bacteria. They found harmful one in mentioned brand.
lady '' you got prove meh?''
goverment '' aight bet''
theres a lot of bad and fake products out there! thank you hong kong food safeth
department for always being vigilant checking products that are imported and made at
home. keep
our elders safe! they eat this fuyu the most. not me so much! its funky!!
I just bought a jar last week in Canada.
It seems their problem started when they had to use chinese tofu instead of Hong Kong tofu.
Also did any 3 party made analsys on the tofu? Or all were government laboratories? 🤔
Bacillus cereus is pronounced SEE RI USS like cereal. It’s a common bacteria associated with grains and cereals.
I've tried it once, that stuff is nasty only horseradish is worse tasting
If the owner want to get back into business they should get the food certification with annual audit on the food processing, and final product food sample taken on microbes testing to obtain the toxicology reports like a CoC. Paying additional fees to adhere the food safety standards and guidelines better than making customers falls ill or worst, even death.
Hongkong shall follow its rule of law. Great job of the authority.
More authoritarian. Hong Kong has lost its autonomy.
Totalitarian Dictatorship
@@andrewbirch Brainwashed remark. After the new national security law was established a few years ago (nearly identical to western nations), most of the UK/US perverts and troublemakers that organized the riots and lied to for centuries to the public were sent packing home. Peace came to Hong Kong.
Unfortunately the English/Nato alliance have spread their cancer to Ukraine and Gaza, and trying to create more problems in the South Chna Sea with Taiwan. Sigh...despicable war-mongering perverts since time immemmorial.
I buy this brand here in New York City all the time. I have never gotten sick after eating it. Is the HK government's claim about it being unsafe legit?
is true, i ate carcinogens and never got cancer.
are carcinogens dangerous???
What did they base the level of bacteria. How about Korean Kimchi what is the level of bacteria of fermented food, not only that but of all fermented foods world wide? What a load of BS
Actually many food products are contaminated by this type of bacteria but if there's too much present & above the regulated safety level, then there's a higher risk of food poisoning. I think if any kimchi tested that's contaminated by a high level of this bacteria, they would get in trouble too.
This is actually Chinese cheese. Yum, i love it!
It actually helps maintain a healthy balance of bacteria in the gut.
Sad to see them go, since their levels of sodium are relatively lower than other brands. This consequence was bound to occur, since production went overseas, and bootleg product is rampant for this brand. That is why I switched over to the Pearl River Bridge brand.
It's the low sodium and expensive Hong Kong production that killed this brand. If they stick with traditional saltier method and move production to cheaper area on the mainland, they would have been fine
@@Peizxcv low sodium make the taste more gentle and flavourable for elderly. but its much harder to maintain the quality. have you heard of "CEO bean curd" of Yung Kee?
sodium is a preservative. This might be the reason why theirs are contaminated
@@slewone4905 it is but it is not just a preservative. It also carry a savoury taste and affects the flvaour. In modern society it is so easy to get a chemical preservative if you just want to preserve something. So it needs much more skill to make low sodium version bean curd, as mentioned before the " director's bean curd" of Yung Kee(typo above as "CEO bean curd"). It is much praised as compared to those super salty rough-made bean curds
I remember my relative would make it with water spinach when I was a kid but I only ate rice with the fermented tofu instead 😅
Actually Hong Kong Government could indeed help the brand to produce it locally in Hong Kong under better conditions!~Instead of attacking each other, they could have approached the matter silently, they could have taken the product of the markets discreetly, improved the facilities in HK, helped the owners to produce it in the city and then sell it with an improved design and hygiene standards. The way they did it was terrible. Now, not only the brand will probably never recover, but this iconic product will be associated with this terrible issue.
Why? Why would the HKG do that? They’re not in the business of making fermented tofu.
@@johnsullivan8673 it’s about preserving a local and iconic business and delicacy!
Margins, the downfalls of all quality products.
Stinky tofy has mold is it. Cheese is aged in an "open" area. Fish sauce, kimchi... all fermented in uncontrolled environment.
Most of the foods are no longer locally produced anymore, most are imported from the mainland
I always wonder HK needs to import food from the evil Chinese. Seeing how HK has vast amount of farming and agricultural land and abundant fresh water resource
even water and electricity are import from the mainland...what the fug are you on about??
@@lyhthegreat You're a lying wumao. Everybody and their grandmother knows that HK grows all their food themselves and whatever they lack they gott for free directly from Queen Elizabeth and now Great King Charles
@@lyhthegreat Hong Kong also imports electricity from Great Britain
@@johnyossarian9059 You have the brains of a baboon, your not wanted here
I wonder how many traditional foods, not limited to Chinese, are considered unacceptable by American standards. Other than MacDonald's of course.
McD products are very clean, their hamburger can last for 10 years. In open air! 😅
there is a reson why this bacteria is regulated at this level. Please ensure your products are following the guidelines for safe consumption.
Like the covid vaccine? Guidelines which were fake?
They did not bribe the inspectors enough
That's like eating infected fungus.
White people eat Blue cheese all the time!
Meanwhile the 農夫山泉is suing the hk consumer council for defamation.
🤣🤣🤣
It was the best bean curds I have ever tasted. So sad… 😢
The way hongkees speak English are just the cutest!!!
fermented items always have high levels of bacteria? I don't get it?😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
that what you get when producing ur own food is so expensive locally, another heritage brand gone
Why are there subtitles? He’s perfectly understandable. His English is perfect
Having subtitles is pretty standard practice...do you have something against people who turn their volume low or those who are hearing impaired or what?
@@G1ingy I do actually yes - well spotted
I don't believe it's the HK FDA that's putting pressure on them, it's more likely they're trying to make a profit in light of inflation that's hitting the world, and they decide to outsource production of their product to save money, which caused the quality to dipped and ruined the brand's reputation completely.
Look at the original place. They clearly don't care about the hygiene protocol.
The reporter’s accent is interesting - sounds Chinese and American to me
Him asking for the product in Honesty voice is hilarious
1:46
they still have it here in supermarkets in bay area
methods used 50-120 years ago may not suit current day regulations hence manufacturers have to evolve and improve their process. Would they like to buy a car TV that uses the same manufacturing methods 50 years ago? If you can't improve, you're outdated.
I thought he was looking for some to test independently. Was kind of disappointed that he didn't do that. I trust the Chinese government as far as I can throw it
It wasn’t the Chinese government that tested it. You should try being less intellectually incapable.
99.9% of Chinese street food is the same or maybe worst than that lol 😂😂😂
You can still find this on Asian markets’ shelves in America.
I’m far away, but it appears that the product went from safe to dangerous in one test. The authorities should explain why earlier test results were apparently all negative. And there is no mention of any complaints! Something about this seems pretty fishy.
The authority also didn't explain whether the bacteria were active or dormant. If the bacteria were dormant (the product is salty), they couldn't produce any toxin that make people sick.
Quite numerous of people in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia enjoying this kind of delicacy, stinky tofu
It's not stinky tofu (臭豆腐). That's also fermented but a completely different dish from what's being discussed in this video (腐乳).
Importing tofu from mainland China. This is the literal definition of tofu dreg. No wonder there is s-loads of bacteria in the tofu. It’s mainland tofu. Have they not been doing bacteria tests for the last 30 years?!?!
Chug more koolaid.
Oh no, I will miss them.
If this brand stick with traditional saltier method and move production to cheaper area on the mainland, they would have been fine. They try to cater to the healthier (less sodium) and fancier (HK made) crowd and doomed themselves because less salt and cramp run-down old house is not a modern factory
Perhaps. Less salt more bacteria. 🤔
Just test it on your own food lab testing then argue, challenge their findings if its not true based on the test results
Plenty stock here in Australia.
Speaks volumes about food safety in Canada and Australia
Its the OEM off Fermented Tofu! 😂
if only they apply HACCP standards
Seems fair - the business doesn't give a care about the health of their customers. I hope they never open again.
😢😢😢 Gosh !
The shop looks so run down and disgusting
12 times! Chinese are superhuman if they consumed all that