Hoi Tin Tong () is a chain of

herbal products Herbal medicine (also herbalism) is the study of pharmacognosy and the use of medicinal plants, which are a basis of traditional medicine. With worldwide research into pharmacology, some herbal medicines have been translated into modern remedies ...

stores in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. The traditional Chinese turtle jelly is their first herbal product. Today, Hoi Tin Tong has developed a wider range of products such as Chinese Herbal Gummy Series and Herbal Drink Series. Hoi Tin Tong markets their natural products as aids to fulfill customers’ health needs. The founder of Hoi Tin Tong, Mr. Ng Yiu-ming, believes that Chinese herbs can strengthen human bodies and the

immune system The immune system is a network of biological processes that protects an organism from diseases. It detects and responds to a wide variety of pathogens, from viruses to parasitic worms, as well as cancer cells and objects such as wood splinte ...

History

The founder, Mr. Ng Yiu-ming, established the first store of Hoi Tin Tong in 1990 on Bowring Street in Jordon. Before setting up the first store, Ng had studied traditional

Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...

and

herbs In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

, then started the business, "Hoi Tin Ye Mei”, which sold

wild animals Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted fo ...

and

turtles Turtles are an order (biology), order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special turtle shell, shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) an ...

. As time passed by, Ng became more experienced in this aspect and began to develop other products like Chinese Herbal Series, Cooking Sauce Series, and Chinese Herbal Gummy Series that can be found nowadays. The idea of selling herbal turtle jelly came from Ng's mother who once weighed less than 100 pounds due to her sickness. However, her health improved gradually after taking herbal turtle gelatin for a period of time. Her appetite and diet returned to normal. She also gained back her weight to around 150 pounds. After hearing Ng's mother's story, people wanted to try herbal turtle jelly for curing other diseases and preventing themselves from illnesses. In order to meet the demand of the herbal turtle jelly, the first store of Hoi Tin Tong was established. As only the natural and fresh ingredients could be used in herbal turtle jelly, thus the price was HK$50 a bowl. Customers eventually found its worthiness and returned to the shop for more with their friends. Since then, Ng has opened a chain of retail stores in

Kowloon Kowloon () is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. With a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of in 2006, it is the most populous area in Hong Kong, compared with Hong Kong Island and t ...

New Territories The New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of Hong Kong. Historically, it ...

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

and

Mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

to produce and invent a variety of new products. The market has further expanded to

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

as well.

Characteristics

Herbal jelly is the signature product of Hoi Tin Tong. Hoi Tin Tong puts an emphasis on the use of fresh turtles as the main ingredient. Fresh turtles contain rich

collagens Collagen () is the main structural protein in the extracellular matrix found in the body's various connective tissues. As the main component of connective tissue, it is the most abundant protein in mammals, making up from 25% to 35% of the whole ...

which can are claimed to be useful for eliminating

toxins A toxin is a naturally occurring organic poison produced by metabolic activities of living cells or organisms. Toxins occur especially as a protein or conjugated protein. The term toxin was first used by organic chemist Ludwig Brieger (1849–1 ...

from the body. As the herbal jelly is mainly made of fresh turtles and poria herbs (Fu Ling), the jelly does not have a significant bitter taste. Hoi Tin Tong has also produced a series of television advertisements. In order to differentiate their brand from other similar brands, Ng participated in each one of them and built an image of "Hero of Turtle Jelly".

Products

The signature series is the Fresh Herbal Jelly Series. This series includes Hong Kong Traditional Herbal Jelly, turtle jelly (Gui Ling Gow) and Fritillaria Bulb (Chuan Bei) Herbal Jelly. Moreover, Freshness Retained Jelly Series is a newly developed series. Some above-mentioned products are packed in disposable zip-lock containers in order to ensure the quality of takeout food such as Herbal Jelly, Chuan Bei Herbal Jelly and Turtle Jelly. Additionally, Hoi Tin Tong provides vegetarians with packed Poria Herbal Jelly (Fu Ling Gao) which is similar to Herbal Jelly. Apart from herbal jelly products, Hoi Tin Tong also offers citizens Healthy Herbal Drink Series including Hemp Seed Tea (Huo Ma Ren), Spica Prunellae (Xia Ku Cao) Tea,

Almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus ...

Tea and Five Flower Tea. Hoi Tin Tong also provides Chinese Herbal Series. There are Herbal Jelly Essence, Cooling 24 and Slimming Tea in such series. In an attempt to broaden the market and to attract customers, Hoi Tin Tong has introduced a new series called Maintain Youthfulness. This series focuses more on beauty care. The products include Turtle (Gui Ling) Tea, Bird’s Nest and

Hasma Hasma (harsmar, hashima) is a Chinese and widely Central Asian dessert ingredient made from the dried fatty tissue found near the fallopian tubes of true frogs, typically the Asiatic grass frog (''Rana chensinensis''). Because of its whitish ...

Turtle gelatin crisis in 2013

As the leading company in the Hong Kong herbal industry, in 2013, Hoi Tin Tong was condemned by citizens and media for selling moldy and fraudulent turtle gelatin to customers. These two crises belonged to the fields of

food safety Food safety (or food hygiene) is used as a scientific method/discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent food-borne illness. The occurrence of two or more cases of a similar illness resulting from t ...

and

food quality Food quality is a concept often based on the organoleptic characteristics (e.g., taste, aroma, appearance) and nutritional value of food. Producers reducing potential pathogens and other hazards through food safety practices is another important fa ...

and aroused publics’ concerns. Consumer Council got more than 12 complaints over the hotline. On 11 September, Choi Kwok-keung, a former shareholder and senior manager released a video clip displaying that an employee of Hoi Tin Tong was rinsing molds off from the surface of bowls of turtle jelly and then sold them to customers. The

Health Inspectors ''Health Inspectors'' is an American reality television series on the Food Network. The series debuted on October 26, 2012 and follows Ben Vaughn as he volunteers his time to various restaurateurs around the country, who need to renovate their res ...

collected samples from 81 retail points for testing. The report showed that the total bacterial count and

microbiology Microbiology () is the scientific study of microorganisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells). Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, bacteriology, prot ...

of the samples did not exceed the legal limit and no irregularities or impurities were found. On 12 September, the

City University of Hong Kong City University of Hong Kong (CityU) is a world-class public research university located in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1984 as City Polytechnic of Hong Kong and became a fully accredited university in 1994. Currently, CityU is ...

announced a laboratory experiment and study report related to the main ingredient of turtle jelly, turtle shells. The result revealed that among the three samples of Hoi Tin Tong’s products, two contained only a very small amount of turtle-shell collagen while none could be found in the third sample. Founder Ng Yiu-ming defended that prolonged boiling could lead to the lack of

. Hoi Tin Tong then used a series of

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...

strategies and

crisis management Crisis management is the process by which an organization deals with a disruptive and unexpected event that threatens to harm the organization or its stakeholders. The study of crisis management originated with large-scale industrial and envir ...

tactics to rebuild the company’s image. They held conferences in both

and

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

to clarify the safety of their products. They further set up customer hotline and invited a celebrity,

Lo Hoi-pang Lo Hoi-pang (born 21 December 1941) is a Hong Kong actor and singer. Lo attended TVB's Training Classes in 1973. Among his classmates are Chow Yun-fat and Ng Man-tat. Lo won the 2012 31st Hong Kong Film Awards for the Best Supporting Actor c ...

, to promote through television advertisements.

References

External links