Watchdog sinks teeth into meatballs

Carine Chow

Meatballs and fish balls are not necessarily real beef and fish, the Consumer Council warns.

Some "lobster balls" contained no lobster at all, tests determined, and some beef balls contained more pork and chicken than beef.

The council tested 60 meatball samples, including 20 beef balls, 10 gong wan or "minced meatballs," 10 fish balls, 10 cuttlefish balls and 10 lobster balls.

So consumers are being short-changed, the watchdog declared as it passed DNA test results to the Customs and Excise Department to investigate for follow-up action.

All 10 samples of lobster balls tested lacked crustacean DNA. That indicated there was no lobster content at all, including a sample that had the prized seafood on its ingredients list.

But only two samples indicated they were not made from real lobster by identifying their products as "lobster-flavored meatballs" and "imitation lobster balls."

Testing also found that the name of meatballs were not the same as the DNA results. Only seven beef meatballs - beef balls and beef tendon balls - were found to contain 100 percent bovine DNA.

The remaining 13 samples were found to contain pig DNA or chicken DNA. Eight of them had an even lower proportion of bovine DNA than pig and chicken DNA.

A sample of beef balls from Kuen Kee Noodle Restaurant on Java Road, North Point, had the lowest ratio of bovine DNA at only 13 percent. Some 86 percent of the remainder was chicken.

Staff of the noodle shop refused to comment on whether they will change the name of beef balls on the menu.

Nora Tam Fung-yee, chairwoman of the council's research and testing committee, said the situation was not ideal.

"If you are calling them beef balls then beef should be the major ingredient," she said. "Lobster balls should at least have crustacean DNA, but it turned out there was none, which means the products do not match the descriptions."

But some diners thought there was nothing wrong with mixing chicken into beef balls. A diner named Ho asked: "At the price of HK$21 per bowl of noodles what more do you want? Turtle herbal jelly also does not contain much turtle shell."

Another diner named Kwan said similar situations existed in many eateries given that beef is costly.

Only three out of the 10 cuttlefish ball samples contained 100 percent cuttlefish DNA, while the remaining all carried squid DNA, with one sample all squid.

The council also warned that people with religious dietary restrictions should pay heed to the meat ingredients when purchasing meatballs.

Council chief executive Gilly Wong Fung-han said: "Frankly speaking, if you have really strict religious beliefs on the dietary requirements, for example if you can only can take beef or if you can only take pork, it would be wise to buy raw beef and raw pork to cook meatballs or maybe cook in different styles yourself.

"It is the safest approach. Without clear disclosure of information to you, or sometimes if it is a non-prepackaged product, it is very hard for you to determine the ingredients inside."

The council also urged traders to enhance the transparency of the types and ratio of meat used in the production of meatballs and accuracy of ingredient lists on prepackaged meatballs.

The accuracy of descriptions aside, the council found 75 percent of the meatballs were high in salt - over 600 milligrams of sodium per 100 grams of food, with fish ball samples the saltiest at an average value of 814mg per 100g. The sodium content of lobster, beef and cuttlefish balls ranged from 654mg to 794mg.

Minced meatballs only have an average of 568mg per 100g.

The sample of fish balls with the highest sodium content per 100g contained 1,260mg of sodium, meaning you would consume 163.8mg of sodium upon consuming a piece of fish ball weighing around 13g.

This means that eating five fish balls would incur a sodium intake equivalent to 41 percent of the daily limit of 2,000mg recommended by the World Health Organization.

On fat content, six samples - four minced meatballs and two beef balls - were "high fat" for having over a 20g total fat content per 100g.

On average, minced meatballs had the highest average total fat content at 19.4g per 100g sample, while lobster balls had the lowest at 1.9g per 100g.