Hong Kong - Hong Kong was facing a severe egg shortage Monday after imports from China were halted because of the discovery of the chemical melamine in some eggs. Supplies from China are believed to have fallen by 80 per cent in recent weeks after the discovery in October of the same chemical in eggs that caused a nationwide milk scare a month earlier.
Hong Kong's health secretary York Chow said Monday the "temporary shortage" had been caused by rigorous checks carried out to ensure that future egg imports from China were melamine-free.
Chinese officials were carrying out thorough checks before allowing eggs to be exported to Hong Kong, he said. "This will be a temporary arrangement and it will lead to a temporary shortage," he said.
Asked how long the shortage would continue, Chow said: "It is difficult to say because our eggs come from different provinces in different areas of the mainland (China)."
Four children died and tens of thousands of others fell ill from melamine used in milk supplies across China. A number of Hong Kong children also developed kidney stones after drinking milk from China.
Melamine, a chemical used for making fertilizers and plastics, had been illegally added to Chinese milk to boost its protein content.
High-rise Hong Kong, one of the most densely populated cities in the world, imports almost all of its food, the majority of it from mainland China.
