McDonald's ice cream found to contain excessive bacterial count - Hong Kong

• HONG KONG (AP) - A local unit of U.S. fast food giant McDonald's has been fined for selling ice cream with a bacterial count nearly five times the permitted level - reportedly the company's third such recent breach of food safety rules here.
• During a routine check in May, health officials found that an ice cream sundae from a McDonald's outlet at Victoria Peak, a popular mountaintop tourist spot, had a bacterial count of 240,000 per gram (8,400 per ounce), said Food and Environmental Hygiene Department spokeswoman Emily Mak.
• The permitted limit is 50,000 per gram (1,750 per ounce), she said, adding that anything exceeding this level may cause the consumer to suffer diarrhea.
• Mak said she didn't know of any cases of food poisoning connected to that McDonald's outlet.
• McDonald's Restaurants (Hong Kong) Ltd. pleaded guilty Tuesday to selling "substandard frozen confection'' in the Eastern Magistrates' Courts and was fined 3,000 Hong Kong dollars (US$385), according to a court document obtained by The Associated Press Wednesday.
• Health inspectors found excessive amounts of E. coli _ a potentially fatal bacteria _ in ice cream sundaes at two other McDonald's outlets here in December 2002 and November 2003, Ming Pao Daily News reported Wednesday.
• The report said health authorities also prosecuted McDonald's for those violations.