Press Releases
SHWF in second leg of four-nation duty visit to Europe (with photo)
The Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, has visited the
European Commission and a number of Belgian government departments/agencies
responsible for food safety management and health care services on his arrival
in Belgium.
Dr Chow was in the second leg of his duty visit to Europe which covers the
Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland to learn about these countries'
food safety control regime and health care system.
Meeting with the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Mr
Markos Kyprianou, Dr Chow gave an account of Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region's developments in the 10 years of its establishment. The Commissioner was
glad to learn about the progress Hong Kong had been making in particular in
regard to its proposed mandatory nutritional labelling law and the consideration
for the control of trans-fat in food.
The Commissioner noted that the European Union was in the process of consulting
its 27 member states for a consensus on the ingredients to be put under
mandatory monitoring. It was the EU's intention that a respective law could be
drawn up in two years.
Dr Chow was of the view that if the process and timing of mandatory nutritional
labelling of Hong Kong and the importing countries, including the EU, could be
aligned, the supply of food to Hong Kong would be saved from any jeopardy.
The Commissioner acceded to a request by Dr Chow that a mechanism be drawn up
between the European Commission and the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau to
facilitate future dialogue on issues related to food safety monitoring and
infectious disease control. Both sides also looked forward to more frequent
exchanges of expertise in the future.
In a separate meeting with the Health and Consumer Protection directorate, Dr
Chow had a good exchange of views with the experts over various issues,
including nutritional labelling, control of trans-fat content and genetically
modified food.
Calling at the Belgian Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain, Dr Chow
was given an introduction to the system of monitoring and control of safety food
import and market supply regulation.
He was informed that most European countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium
and Germany, as a member of EU, all subscribed to the EU's standard of control
of food import and did not have to manage a system of their own.
Belgian officials were appreciative of the fact that Hong Kong had to work on a
more sophisticated monitoring system as import accounted for more than 90 per
cent of its food supply.
A meeting with the Belgian Federal Public Service of Health, Food Chain Safety
and Environment afforded Dr Chow of a good understanding of the Belgian health
care system, which relying heavily on social insurance, offered patients a free
choice between the public and private sector for provision of medical care.
Dr Chow took the opportunity of his stopover in Brussels to pay a courtesy call
to the Chinese Ambassador to Belgium, Ms Zhang Qiyue.
After attending the World Health Organisation's "60th World Health Assembly" in
Geneva, Switzerland, on May 14, Dr Chow will return to Hong Kong on May 15.
Ends/Friday, May 11, 2007
Issued at HKT 17:07
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