Press Releases
PSHWF visits Beijing to discuss food safety
The Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Mrs Carrie Yau, today (May
15) led a delegation to Beijing to attend the inaugural meeting of the Steering
Group on Safe Food Supply to Hong Kong to discuss the safety of Mainland food
for supply to Hong Kong with the Director-General of the Import and Export Food
Safety Bureau of the State General Administration of Quality Supervision,
Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), Mr Li Yuanping.
She also updated her Mainland counterparts on the latest work of the Hong Kong
side in raising the food safety standard.
Speaking at the meeting, Mrs Yau said the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region Government had all along maintained close liaison and communication with
the relevant Mainland authorities, particularly in the control and prevention of
avian influenza and managing eruptive food incidents, and non-scheduled meetings
were frequently held when needed.
The setting up of the Steering Group on Safe Food Supply to Hong Kong was an
enhancement of the existing mechanism to ensure a more macro and forward-looking
approach be adopted in the work of promoting food safety. These included the
implementation of administrative or legislative measures as well as any
complementary arrangements.
Speaking on enhanced mechanism, Mrs Yau said that to further promote food
safety, putting in place an effective importer/supplier registration system was
very important. "This can help trace the sources of food, early identification
of problematic food, more proactively guard against problematic food entering
into the food chain, and hence protect public health," she said.
"We will continue to explore with the relevant departments on the Mainland how
to better our existing food regulatory mechanism, such as widening the scope of
imported food that need to be accompanied with health certificates, putting more
categories of food under regulation and control, as well as opening up new modes
of food tests. We will review food regulatory infrastructure and complementary
facilities to cope with the development in various testing and regulatory
mechanism."
At the meeting, both sides exchanged views over safeguarding the food safety of
food for supply to Hong Kong and reaffirmed the future direction in food safety
regulation, including the continual adoption of the dual gate-keeping mode as
the axis for controlling at source and supplemented by inspection and testing by
the two places.
To enhance safeguarding food safety of food for supply to Hong Kong, Mainland
authorities and Hong Kong had reached agreement to adopt the following new
initiatives this year:
* Vegetables: AQSIQ had strengthened control measures over the source of
vegetables for supply to Hong Kong and Macau. Among these, it was stipulated
that those vegetable farms and processing plants, if not listed on AQSIQ
website, could not export their produce to Hong Kong and Macau. These measures
would cover non-leafy vegetables as well starting from October this year;
* Live fish: Guangdong Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau (GDCIQ) would
further impose control on live freshwater fish for supply to Hong Kong by
putting seals on Mainland vessels transporting fish to Hong Kong. The new
measure could be implemented in the coming one or two months the soonest; and
* Eggs: Starting from January this year, all Mainland eggs had to be accompanied
with health certificates before entering into Hong Kong. They should also come
from approved farms and processing plants accredited by AQSIQ to ensure the
products were fit for consumption.
Regarding future work directions, the HWFB briefed the AQSIQ on the present
legislative work in Hong Kong. Views were exchanged between both sides,
including:
* The food safety bill now being drafted would integrate the existing laws
regulating food safety. It would bring under regulation food which has higher
safety risk or of wide public concern, including farmed aquatic products,
vegetables and fruits. To comply with the legislative requirements, the Mainland
and other exporting countries had to provide health certificates for their food
supplying to Hong Kong; and
* Hong Kong would introduce a more comprehensive and clearer subsidiary
legislation to impose control on the standard of pesticide residues. The
standard on preservatives in food would be categorised based on food types to
enhance regulatory transparency and meet international standard. Farmers and
manufacturers from the Mainland and other exporting countries would have to meet
the new standard.
To implement the regulatory measures more effectively, the AQSIQ and HWFB agreed
in the Steering Group meeting that Hong Kong would host the Guangdong, Hong
Kong, Macau, Shenzhen and Zhuhai Health Quarantine, Animal and Plant Quarantine
and Food Safety Control Meeting in June. Food safety experts from the five
places would participate in the meeting.
The Steering Group on Safe Food Supply to Hong Kong was set up under the
co-operation framework signed by the HWFB and AQSIQ. To join with the Entry-Exit
Inspection and Quarantine authorities in Guangdong, Shenzhen and Zhuhai, the
Steering Group would implement the regulatory measures to ensure the safety of
food supplying to Hong Kong.
Accompanying Mrs Yau to visit Beijing were the Director of Food and
Environmental Hygiene, Mr Eddy Chan; the Controller of the Centre for Food
Safety (CFS), Dr Mak Sin-ping; the Assistant Director of the CFS, Dr Constance
Chan; and the Assistant Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation, Dr
Leung Siu-fai.
Ends/Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Issued at HKT 16:01
NNNN