Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ19: Safety of parallelly imported foods

        Following is a question by the Hon Wong Yung-kan and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, in the Legislative Council today (June 16):

 

Question:

 

        Regarding food safety, will the Government inform this Council of:

 

(a)    the existing measures to regulate the safety of foods not imported through local dealers, and the percentage of the samples of such foods among all food samples taken in the routine sampling inspections of foods in the past three years;

 

(b)    the alert mechanism in place to enable the authorities to obtain information on such foods upon their importation, and whether such a mechanism includes a requirement for food importers to declare information on the imported foods; if so, how the authorities deal with the cases where the declared information does not conform to the facts; if not, the reasons for that; and

 

(c)    the specific details about the operation of the food safety notification mechanism set up by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the State General Administration for Quality Supervision and Inspection and Quarantine, and whether it has discussed with the Mainland government departments responsible for food quality inspection the recently disclosed incidents of substandard foods in the Mainland; if it has, of the discussion results; if not, the reasons for that?

 

Reply:

 

Madam President,

 

(a)    All foods for sale in Hong Kong are subject to the control and regulation under the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap. 132) and its subsidiary legislation to ensure that they are safe and fit for human consumption.  Any person in breach of the relevant food safety legislative provisions shall be liable to a maximum penalty of HK$ 50,000 and an imprisonment of six months.  The Food and Environment Hygiene Department (FEHD) conducts routine sampling inspections of the food available for sale in Hong Kong.  There is no separate figure showing the percentage of food items sampled which are not imported through local dealers.

 

(b)    The food safety control framework in Hong Kong consists of several main components, including safety control of imported food, food surveillance, risk assessment, etc.  Certain high risk imported food like milk, milk products, frozen confections, game, meat and poultry are governed by the relevant subsidiary legislation of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap. 132).  For example, the import of meat requires FEHD's prior approval.  In accordance with international practice, we have adopted a risk-based approach in devising our food surveillance programme.  Under this approach,  FEHD takes food samples at the import, wholesale and retail levels for microbiological and chemical testing.  FEHD will conduct investigation including requesting the retailers, wholesalers or importers concerned to provide information on the imported food products of which the wholesomeness is found to be problematic or under suspicion.  FEHD will then issue warnings or institute prosecution actions against the persons concerned.  In addition, FEHD also conducts random inspections from time to time to ensure that all pre-packaged food products available for sale in the market are labelled in compliance with the legislation so that consumers can make informed choices when purchasing such products.  For any products found not in compliance with the labelling requirements, FEHD will take follow-up actions.  FEHD will regularly review the control strategy, as well as the quantity and food types sampled under the food surveillance programme to meet changing needs. 

 

(c)    We have established a notification mechanism with the State General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China.  In case of food safety incidents affecting the food exported to Hong Kong, the  relevant Mainland authorities will alert FEHD proactively for follow-up actions.  Regarding the recent disclosure of substandard food products found in the Mainland, FEHD has approached the relevant Mainland authorities for details and follow-up actions.  We have been informed so far that all the food products involved in the reported incidents do not include any food products exported to Hong Kong.  To ensure food safety, FEHD has also stepped up random inspections of similar food products available for sale in Hong Kong.

 

Ends/Wednesday, June 16, 2004

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