Hong Kong health inspector gets community service for stealing food samples

A Hong Kong health inspector has been sentenced to 120 hours of community service for stealing food samples bought with public money for radiation testing, with French veal stew and Arborio rice among the items seized from his home.

West Kowloon Court on Thursday agreed not to jail Lau Shing-hin after the 36-year-old defendant pleaded guilty and testified against four others on trial, even though they were eventually acquitted.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) prosecuted five inspectors from the food import and export section of the Centre for Food Safety’s risk management division on suspicion of appropriating residual food samples for their own use, in breach of internal guidelines.

The ICAC said in a statement last year the inspectors had used taxpayers’ money to buy more than HK$88,000 (US$11,300) worth of food samples from five importers for two radiation tests in 2022 and 2023.

Investigators recovered more than 80 food items at the five defendants’ homes, including canned abalone, white truffle sauce, crab bisque, Japanese rice and various types of pasta.

A prosecution case summary said eight samples worth HK$543 were recovered from Lau’s home, including French veal stew, Arborio rice, octopus, squid, cheese and Earl Grey tea bags.