Hongkongers can keep enjoying eels from the mainland, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said yesterday after tests in Japan showed excessive amount of a carcinogenic pesticide, endosulfan, in the species exported from Guangdong and Shanghai.

But no eels from the farms identified as the source of the consignments to Japan have been supplied to Hong Kong, the mainland's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said.

Quoting the supervision and inspection authorities, acting assistant director of Food Surveillance and Control Division (FSCD) Tina Mok said the misuse of pesticide had raised the level of the cancer-causing substance in the eels.

Japan said the concentration of endosulfan in one of the samples tested there was 22 times higher than the safety level.

In July last year, another cancer-causing chemical, malachite green (MG), was found in mainland eels supplied to Hong Kong. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine had then swung into immediate action and withdrawn all eel products from the market.

Supply resumed only after the MG threat was totally ruled out at the end of last year.

An agreement between Hong Kong and the mainland ensures that the city gets only registered farms' eels, accompanied by health certificates to prove they are free from toxic substances and fit for human consumption, Mok said.

Endosulfan is a registered pesticide in Hong Kong that is usually used in fruit and vegetable farms but banned from being used in pisciculture because it has a toxic effect on fish.

Though the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) has not found any toxic substance in the more than 100 samples of imported food it has tested since 2004, it has never assayed fish for endosulfan, she said.

CFS will now test fruits and vegetables to see if they contained higher than safe levels of the pesticide and intensify surveillance to ensure that fish are fit for human consumption, she said. Centre officials had already started collecting samples of fish supplied by mainland farms to carry out tests.

Decline in sales

But despite the assurances the sale of eels has dropped in the city.

A fish vendor in Aberdeen Food Market said his sales had dropped by more than 80 per cent. "Usually, I get more than 20 customers for the eels every day. But today, I've got only three."

Some other vendors, however, said their sales have not suffered. "They are about the same as usual," one fish vendor said. "Eels anyway don't sell too well in summer."

Sales have dropped in supermarkets too. A potential customer checking out the sushi section in a supermarket said he would avoid eels for now. "It's better to be safe than sorry," he said.

People are avoiding packed cooked eels too. "I'd rather eat other fish such as salmon or tuna for now," another customer said.

Editor: Yan