blogmacau.info

Oysters distributed in Macau that had caused a food poisoning outbreak do not come from New Zealand as claimed.

A total of 193 people had reportedly fallen ill after having buffet at Sands Hotel, the Venetian Macau, Golden Dragon Hotel and Macau Tower, as by 18:00 on 11 September.

All of them have been recovered.

Investigations by Macau and Hong Kong authorities established that the food poisoning outbreak is caused by the Norwalk virus contained in the concerned oysters.

Health certificates show that the oysters actually come from Weihai in mainland China, and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China also confirmed that they are frozen oysters that cannot be eaten uncooked.

However, the Administration also pointed out that since discrepancies exist between the oysters imported to Macau and the content of the health certificates, it is possible that the oysters may not come from mainland China neither.

Meanwhile, investigations by the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau and the Health Service also show that there are no signs that the oysters are from New Zealand.

The Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau will announce a short-term measure to make animals that can be consumed uncooked to be imported directly from locations of origin.