Popular snack Pringles on Wednesday were removed from the shelves of Hong Kong supermarkets after being found to contain a cancer-causing chemical following tests in mainland China.

Samples of the product in China were found to contain potassium bromate, a preservative allowed in the U.S. in limited quantities but banned in China and Hong Kong for its links to cancer

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) of Singapore on Tuesday ordered a confectionery to shut down after customers who ate a cake made by the factory suffered food poisoning.

The factory, Prima Food, also decided to voluntarily close its 39 Prima Deli bakeries islandwide for one week starting on Wednesday. One outlet sold a chocolate cake contaminated with salmonella bacteria to one of the victims of the food poisoning

A five-fold hike in penalties will be imposed by China's State Environmental Protection Administration on individuals and firms that pollute drinking water resources by discharging toxic substances. The drastic hike in fines will place the maximum fine at $67,600 (500,000 yuan).

For those who dump solid waste and other types of pollutants, the penalty will be $27,000 (200,000 yuan), a 20-fold increase from present levels. The draft policy lifts the $135,000 (1 million yuan) ceiling on fines for water polluters. Once the policy is approved, polluters will have to pay from 20 percent to 30 percent of the direct economic loss that was caused by their dumping activity

The Chinese government exposed more than 40,000 unhygienic practices of Chinese caterers from January to October, resulting in the revocation of hundreds of business licenses and imposition of fines totaling $3 million.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Friday that the violations were uncovered after inspecting more than 920,000 food merchants, according to the Ministry of Health. The caterers' failure to observe best practices in food preparation has resulted in the rising incidence of food poisoning and infectious disease in China

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assured members of Congress on Wednesday that drug resistant staph infections should not be a cause for panic.

At House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing, CDC head Dr. Julie Gerberding said, "This isn't something just floating around in the air. It takes close contact, things like sharing towels and razors, or rolling on the wrestling mat or football field with open scrapes, or not bandaging cuts, to become infected with the staph germ called MRSA outside of a hospital. But MRSA is preventable largely by common-sense hygiene