The finished product has a distinctive pungent aroma and yielding texture that has been likened to ripe soft cheese, and it is an essential ingredient in traditional Cantonese dishes such as stir-fried water spinach, and lamb stew with bean curd sheets.
Liu Ma Kee featured in a Hong Kong Tourism Board campaign in 2021 to boost travel to the city by spotlighting heritage businesses and hidden gems. Jay Liu Fong-yip, part of the fourth generation of his family to run Liu Ma Kee, told the Post back then that he hoped the campaign would encourage more local customers to visit the shop.
On July 18, images of the long-standing store with its shutters down and with paper notices saying “closed” and “closed for business” were posted to social media.
On July 4, the Hong Kong government’s Centre for Food Safety published an alert warning that tests on a batch of bottled fermented bean curd taken from a Sai Ying Pun retailer had shown unsatisfactory levels of bacteria Bacillus cereus.
Test results had shown that the sample contained Bacillus cereus at a level of 130,000 per gram – the threshold for safe consumption is 100,000 per gram. The public was advised not to consume the affected batch, and the vendor was instructed to stop sales of it. Liu Ma Kee followed instructions to recall the affected batch.
Jay Liu’s mother, Mrs Liu, contacted Scoop, a Hong Kong television programme broadcast by TVB, to air her concerns following the investigation. It aired an episode in which she told how a representative of the Centre for Food Safety had visited Liu Ma Kee’s Yau Ma Tei store on July 3 to request a bottle of fermented bean curd for follow-up testing, as the sample taken from the Sai Ying Pun retailer did not have a clear best before date.
She claimed that the centre put out its alert about the fermented bean curd batch before the results of its tests came back, and that a member of the centre’s staff had told them on July 8 that tests on the sample from its store came back with a satisfactory result.
Mrs Liu told Scoop that since the centre issued its alert, customers had been coming in their droves to return purchases – even bottles that had already expired.
“Overnight, we were sent to hell. Customers no longer trust us,” she told its reporter. “What can I do, should I close down the store? I’d rather not continue any more.”
However, a subsequent report issued by the centre on July 16 announced that a new sample taken from a bottle of Liu Ma Kee fermented bean curd with a best-before date of August 7, 2025 was found to have a Bacillus cereus level of 1,300,000 per gram – 12 times the recommended level for safe consumption.
The Post has reached out to the Centre for Food Safety and Liu Ma Kee’s owners for comment.