An upscale Hong Kong grocery store is being prosecuted after a customer allegedly discovered 575 beetles in a jar of cereal he bought, officials and media reports said on Saturday.
The customer, lawyer Philip Dykes, said the breakfast cereal was ”too organic for my liking”, according to the South China Morning Post.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department has charged the Great grocery store with sale of ”food not of the nature, substance or quality demanded by the purchaser”, said Emily Mak, a departmental spokesperson.
The charge carries a maximum fine of HK$10 000 (R7 400) and up to three months’ imprisonment, according to the Apple Daily newspaper.
The AS Watson Group, which runs the store, has pleaded not guilty.
A spokesperson for Great, Teresa Pang, said the store began selling the product — Bunalun Organic Vanilla Granola Breakfast Cereal — in 2001 and the case ”is the first complaint of this nature we have ever received on the product”.
”We have full confidence on the quality of the products we sell,” Pang said. She declined further comment, saying the court case is still in progress.
The lawyer allegedly found the beetles and 17 larvae in the plastic jar, which he bought in 2003, Apple reported. — Sapa-AP