The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department today (August 6) said that subsequent to the announcement earlier that two kinds of ice cream imported from France might have been contaminated with a pesticide, ethylene oxide, which is not authorised by the European Union (EU), follow-up investigations showed several affected products have also been imported to Hong Kong. The products have not been put on sale in the market.

Product details are as follows:

Product name: Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Caramel Brownie Ice Cream
Brand: Häagen-Dazs
Place of origin: France
Net volumes: 9.46 litres
Best-before dates: May 29, 2023
importer: General Mills Hong Kong Limited

Product name: Häagen-Dazs Belgian Chocolate & Strawberry Ice Cream
Brand: Häagen-Dazs
Place of origin: France
Net volumes: 420 millilitres
Best-before dates: June 15, 2023
importer: General Mills Hong Kong Limited

Product name: Häagen-Dazs Milk Tea Brown Sugar & Vanilla Ice Cream
Brand: Häagen-Dazs
Place of origin: France
Net volumes: (i) 420 millilitres and (ii) 95 millilitres 
Best-before dates: (i) June 1, 2023, and (ii) June 16, 2023
importer: General Mills Hong Kong Limited

Product name: Häagen-Dazs Vanilla & Raspberry Ice Cream
Brand: Häagen-Dazs
Place of origin: France
Net volumes: (i) 420 millilitres and (ii) 95 millilitres
Best-before dates: (i) May 26, 2023, and (ii) May 22, 2023
importer: General Mills Hong Kong Limited

Product name: Häagen-Dazs Vanilla & Mango Passionfruit Ice Cream
Brand: Häagen-Dazs
Place of origin: France
Net volumes: 95 millilitres
Best-before dates: May 27, 2023, and (ii) June 20, 2023
importer: General Mills Hong Kong Limited

Product name: Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Caramel Almond Ice Cream Bar
Brand: Häagen-Dazs
Place of origin: France
Net volumes: (i) 80 millilitres and (ii) 3 x 80 millilitres
Best-before dates: (i) May 31, 2023, June 1, 2023, June 4, 2023, June 5, 2023, June 26, 2023 and (ii) May 30, 2023, May 31, 2023 and June 26, 2023
importer: General Mills Hong Kong Limited

Product name: Häagen-Dazs Milk Tea with Brown Sugar & Vanilla Ice Cream Bar
Brand: Häagen-Dazs
Place of origin: France
Net volumes: 80 millilitres
Best-before dates: June 4, 2023
importer: General Mills Hong Kong Limited

A spokesman for the CFS said, "The CFS received a notification from the Rapid alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) of the European Commission that the above-mentioned products may be contaminated with a pesticide, ethylene oxide, which is not authorised by the EU. As informed by RASFF, the origin of the contamination is suspected to be in the vanilla extract that is used in preparation process. The affected products have been imported into Hong Kong. Upon learning of the incident, the CFS immediately contacted local importers for follow-up."

The CFS's follow-up investigations found that the above-mentioned importer had imported the affected batches of the products. Affected batches of the products arrived in Hong Kong are stored inside a warehouse, and have not entered the local market. Since ethylene oxide is not authorised by the EU, for the sake of prudence, the CFS has inspected the warehouse and marked and sealed the product concerned. 

The CFS will alert the trade to the incident, and will continue to follow up on the incident and take appropriate action. Investigation is ongoing.