A Hong Kong caterer who supplied a government quarantine facility could face prosecution after health authorities confirmed a sample of one of their meals was tainted with bacteria following multiple complaints of food poisoning from people who had been isolated there.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department told the Post on Thursday that it was considering pursuing legal action against Danny Catering Service Ltd – which provided food for the Penny’s Bay Quarantine Centre on Lantau Island – over its allegedly poor food hygiene standards.

Staff from the department found unclean food and items stored at improper temperatures when they inspected the company’s production facility on May 7. The person in charge of the plant had corrected the problems by May 10, a department spokesman added.

Laboratory tests, meanwhile, found one food sample was contaminated with Bacillus cereus, which could cause food poisoning, vomiting and diarrhoea.

After some 2,300 people were evacuated from their homes over fears of an outbreak of a more infectious coronavirus variant earlier this month, irate quarantined residents began posting pictures of the unappetising meals supplied at the camps along with complaints that the food had made them feel unwell.

Images purporting to show the meals supplied at the facility featured greyish meat patties studded with yellow corn kernels and mouldy oranges for dessert.

Quarantined residents soon began sharing photos of the food being served at Penny’s Bay.

A Department of Health spokesman said on Thursday that the catering service was no longer the food contractor at Penny’s Bay.

The department also confirmed that of the 45 people who fell ill at Penny’s Bay, five were sent to hospital and had since been discharged. However, the department stopped short of attributing the illness to food poisoning.

One previously quarantined resident from the Caribbean Coast housing estate in Tung Chung, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the food at Penny’s Bay as “simply dire”, and added that poor Wi-fi and cell reception at the camp added to their “misery”.

The resident also claimed to have suffered from food poisoning while there.

Cup noodles were served to quarantined residents after the food-poisoning symptoms began to emerge.

The 21-day mass quarantine order was ultimately reversed on May 7 after a rule change by authorities, and those in isolation were allowed to go home
if they tested negative for Covid-19 that weekend.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor acknowledged on Tuesday that the catering service at Penny’s Bay was “a bit substandard”, noting that it had not been possible to conduct a full public tender for the role given the urgency of the mass quarantine order.

“We will review all these complaints and grievances with a view to improving the arrangements,” Lam said.