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Food Safety, Environmental Hygiene, Agriculture and Fisheries
permits; 2,173 licences for places of public entertainment; 42 licences for other trades; 1,189 liquor and club liquor licences; and eight permits for karaoke establishments in licensed.
restaurants.
Food Safety and Labelling
The Centre for Food Safety safeguards food sold in Hong Kong. It took about 66,000 samples of food at import, wholesale and retail levels for chemical, microbiological and radiological testing in 2018. The overall satisfaction rate of these tests was 99.8 per cent. The Government Laboratory is responsible for most of the testing of food samples, including supervising tests. outsourced to private laboratories.
During the year, the Animal Inspection Station at Man Kam To inspected 38,545 vehicles carrying live food animals including pigs, cattle and goats, and examined 1,488,825 live food animals.
Pre-packaged food, unless exempted, has to carry a nutrition label that provides information about energy and seven specified nutrients. Nutrition claims can be made if the food satisfies the claim conditions of the Nutrition Labelling Scheme.
The bureau and the centre make reference to the food safety standards of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and other economies, and take into account local dietary practices and risk assessment results, to update Hong Kong's food safety standards and regulatory arrangements in a timely way on the basis of scientific evidence.
Public Markets and Cooked Food Markets
The FEHD operates 97 public markets, including 23 free-standing cooked food markets, and carries out promotional activities to boost the vibrancy of the premises. There are some 14,100 stalls selling fresh provisions, cooked food, light refreshments and household items as well as providing service trades.
At the end of 2018, the overall occupancy rate at these markets was 89 per cent. The department is implementing a 10-year Market Modernisation Programme to improve the operating environment of the markets through a major overhaul for some and minor improvement works at others. The department is also conducting a comprehensive review of its public markets and will formulate specific improvement measures for both the facilities and their management in a systematic manner.
The department is planning for new public markets in Tung Chung Town Centre and New Town Extension, Tin Shui Wai, Tseung Kwan O, and the Kwu Tung North and Hung Shui Kiu new development areas. New approaches to the design, construction and operation of such projects are under consideration.
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