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Food Safety, Environmental Hygiene, Agriculture and Fisheries
the Liquor Licensing Board, an independent statutory body that issues liquor licences, including those for clubs.
During 2014, the FEHD issued 8,381 full, provisional and temporary food business licences, 687 permits for restricted foods, 1,519 licences for places of public entertainment, 38 licences for other trades, 1,006 liquor and club liquor licences, and nine permits for karaoke establishments in premises with restaurant licences.
Since 1 January 2013, the FEHD accepts submission of applications for food business/trade licences and permits through the internet.
Food Safety and Labelling
The FEHD's Centre for Food Safety (CFS) is responsible for ensuring that food sold in Hong Kong is safe and fit for consumption. About 64,200 samples of food were taken at import, wholesale and retail points for chemical, microbiological and radiological testing in 2014. The overall satisfaction rate of these tests was 99.8 per cent.
During 2014, about 34,700 vehicles carrying vegetables, and about 42,800 vehicles carrying live food animals including pigs, cattle, goats and poultry, were inspected at the Food Control Office and Animal Inspection Station at Man Kam To, and about 2,888,300 live food animals were examined and about 14,700 blood and 55,100 urine, faecal and tissue samples were tested for zoonotic disease and veterinary drug residues.
The nutrition labelling scheme requires pre-packaged foods, unless exempted, to carry labels that provide information about energy and specified nutrients, and also specifies the conditions. for making nutrition claims. The scheme assists consumers to make informed food choices, regulates misleading or deceptive labels and nutrition claims, and encourages food manufacturers to apply sound nutrition principles in the formulation of foods. In 2014, the CFS conducted visual checks on 5,080 pre-packaged food products to ensure that they complied with the statutory '1+7' nutrition-labelling requirements and took 501 food samples for chemical analysis to verify the nutrition information and nutrition claims. The overall compliance rate was 98.11 per cent.
The Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) (Amendment) (No 2) Regulation 2014 was gazetted in June. It mandates nutrition labelling of infant formula, follow-up formula and pre- packaged food for infants and young children under the age of 36 months as well as regulates the nutritional composition of infant formula. The requirements on infant formula will come into operation in December 2015 while those on follow-up formula and pre-packaged food for infants and young children will come into operation in June 2016.
The Pesticide Residues in Food Regulation came into operation on 1 August 2014, providing a legal framework for the control of pesticide residues in food.
Following confirmation of reports that substandard lard products had been imported into Hong Kong from Taiwan, the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene issued three Food Safety Orders in September, October and November 2014 under the Food Safety Ordinance to
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