Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ6: Food safety of dried seafood

Following is a question by the Hon Mak Kwok-fung and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, in the Legislative Council today (February 4):

Question :

It has been reported that in December last year, the Guangdong authorities uncovered the use of industrial hydrogen peroxide, which contained impurities hazardous to human health, by some merchants to bleach shark's fins. Some of these bleached shark's fins had already been transported to Hong Kong for sale. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the major sources of dried seafood sold in Hong Kong and the average amount and value of dried seafood consumed per person every year;

(b) of the number of dried seafood samples taken for laboratory tests by the relevant departments in the past five years; the number and details of the cases in which the samples were found to contain substances unfit for human consumption or breached other requirements; and

(c) given that it has set up a reciprocal notification mechanism on food safety matters with the relevant Mainland authorities, whether the latter have notified their Hong Kong counterpart of the above incident; if they have, of the details of the notification; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply :

(a) Based on the data provided by the Census and Statistics Department, dried seafood sold in Hong Kong mainly comes from the Mainland, Japan, Canada, Australia and South East Asian countries. More than 50,000 tonnes of dried seafood, with a value HK$6.6 billion was imported to Hong Kong in 2003. 

(b) Since the establishment of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) in 2000 to end 2003, a total of 249 samples of dried seafood were taken for laboratory tests. Out of the 24 samples found to be unsatisfactory, 14 were found to have contained hydrogen peroxide (all were samples of shark fin), seven were found to have contained excessive heavy metal, two were tested to have sulphur dioxide and one with formaldehyde. Twenty-four warning letters were issued to relevant parties to prohibit the sale of these dried seafood and, in one particular case, the FEHD instituted prosecution action. 

(c) Under the existing notification and liaison arrangement on food safety between Hong Kong and Mainland, the liaison officer of FEHD immediately liaised with the relevant Mainland authority on the use of industrial hydrogen peroxide, which contained impurities hazardous to human health, by some merchants to bleach shark fins. They were informed that the factory involved was not approved for exporting processed seafood. Based on the regulation of the Mainland, only factories registered with the inspection and quarantine authorities in the Mainland are permitted to export food products to Hong Kong.

Ends/Wednesday, February 4, 2004
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