Prosecutors said that Ningsih told police her employer had been unhappy with her performance since hiring her last July and constantly scolded her.

She told police she mixed the blood with the food because she believed it would improve their relationship and make her employer kinder to her.

In 2008, a court in Saudi Arabia jailed two maids from Indonesia and the Philippines for four months and sentenced them to 250 lashes each for putting urine and menstrual blood in their employer's tea.

Another Indonesian maid in Hong Kong was jailed for three months in 2007 after being convicted of adding urine to the drinking water of her employer, believing it would make the family treat her better.

More than 200,000 women from the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand work as live-in maids for families in Hong Kong, doing housework and child care duties for a government-set minimum wage of around $450 a month.