Hong Kong - Hundreds of thousands of tins of a popular imported soup were cleared from shop shelves in Hong Kong Friday after complaints of a bad smell.

About 350,000 tins of Campbell's mushroom soup made in Malaysia for the Hong Kong and Macau markets are being recalled after three customers complained of a bad odor.

The recall began Thursday and was continuing in stores across the city of 6.9 million as Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety warned people not to eat the soup.

A spokeswoman for Campbell Soup Asia told the South China Morning Post: "We have no evidence that these products present a health or safety risk and there has been no report of a consumer falling ill after eating the soup."

She added that the company was withdrawing the product "as part of our commitment to quality," the newspaper reported.

The Campbell Soup Co is based in the United States. It entered the Hong Kong market during British colonial times in the 1930s and set up an office in the city in 1984. (dpa)