Listeria in protein bars

Hong Kong: The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) has warned the public not to eat three kinds of prepackaged protein bar imported from the US as they might be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

A CFS spokesman said: "The CFS, through its Food Incident Surveillance System, noted a notice issued by the Food and Drug Administration of the US about the recall of five kinds of protein bar produced by Bulletproof 360, Inc. as the products might have been contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. ​

"Preliminary investigation by the CFS found that a shop in Central, THE STORE.COM.HK, has imported and sold three kinds of the affected products."​

Bulletproof branded Fudge Brownie Collagen Protein Bar 45g November 14, 2017; Lemon Cookie Collagen Protein Bar 45g November 8, 2017 and Vanilla Shortbread Collagen Protein Bar 45g November 15, 2017 are affected.

HVF Inc supplied the cashew butter used in Bulletproof Collagen Bars and Bites. The affected equipment was not used to process the cashew butter in the products; however, testing at HVF’s facility found Listeria contamination in another part of the plant.

Bulletproof will be shipping replacement Collagen Protein Bars and Bites made with a new cashew butter supplier.

Affected products were distributed between April 7 and June 12 in retail stores nationally and on bulletproof.com to customers in Australia, Bahrain, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Cayman Islands, China, Finland, France, Germany, Guam, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Liechtenstein, Macau, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, UK and Virgin Islands (USA).