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The Customs and Excise Department arrested two men and a woman at three sundry seafood stores last week following a Consumer Council investigation that found over two-thirds of such shops were selling fake crocodile meat – an expensive delicacy many locals believe can relieve whooping cough triggered by cold.
The Consumer Council found out in a recent investigation that more than 60 percent of sundry seafood stores here were selling dried “crocodile meat” that is in fact lizard or snake meat. Some of the cheating shops listed the expensive delicacy as “prime fish meat” or simply “seafood” to make it very difficult if not entirely impossible for customers to get their money back.
The Consumer Council bought the same amount of croc meat at each of 24 randomly selected stores and took the specimens to the Chinese University of Hong Kong for confirmation through DNA tests. The Lab tests revealed that only seven of the 24 shops were selling genuine crocodile meat, while the rest sold either giant lizard (14 samples) or snake (two samples) meat and one sold real croc meat mixed with a lot of snake meat.
A Consumer Council official told reporters at a press conference that the priciest crocodile meat they saw during the investigation cost about nine times as much as the cheapest snake fillet for the same quantity.
A customs official said at the press conference that his department teamed up with the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department in a surprise search of 10 shops in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories and took samples for testing. The results showed only two samples are genuine crocodile meat, while six of them are from giant lizards and one appears to be some kind of snake. The make of the remaining one is yet to be determined, but the officials are certain it is not crocodile meat, he added. ■春生 資深翻譯員
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