Page 138
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
135
Last year, the Government conducted a survey on the samples of sushi and sashimi. In the survey, it was found that more than 40% of the sushi and sashimi samples were not up to the hygiene standard in terms of bacterial concentration. In recent years, there has been an increasing number of food premises selling these food products. Many hotels, restaurants, small eateries and even hawker stalls sell sushi and sashimi. Consumers simply place their confidence in the food suppliers when they consume these food products. It can be said that consumers are totally ignorant of the hygiene standard of these food products. It seems that consumers lack protection in consuming them.
As the name suggests, raw fish food products are eaten raw. They cannot be stored with other kinds of meat in the same refrigerator. Besides, these food products have to undergo manual processing. Therefore, it is more difficult to ensure their hygiene standard. At present, we are able to monitor the situation only by means of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance, Cap. 132. Being targeted at general food only but not catered for these high-risk food products, the Ordinance and the subsidiary bylaws can neither effectively monitor the situation nor have any strong deterrent effect. There are still many loopholes in the monitoring system. I am glad to know that the USD and the Department of Health agreed to my suggestion and recognised the potential risk of these high-risk food products, as well as having considered imposing licensing control on them. However, the amendments made to the legislation by the Department of Health are only preliminary suggestions. The work and the technical problems involved are still pending discussion. Therefore, I do not believe that these high-risk food products should be monitored by the Department of Health alone.
Since the Council is closely linked with the livelihood of Hong Kong citizens, food hygiene is considered to be one of the most important aspects of our work. Since the Department of Health intends to improve the monitoring of the sale of these food products, we should at once respond to and fully co-operate with them. We should play a leading role in amending the legislation. We should hold constructive discussions, carry out research and put forward suggestions. So, the Department of Health can act in accordance with the valuable comments of our Councillors and come up with a more effective and comprehensive proposal to the amendments. And so, the Council can also aptly co-operate with the Department of Health and work out effective long-term measures to regulate the sale of sushi and sashimi.
To propose amending the legislation and adopting licensing control are constructive but regrettably, it takes time to be completed because amending the legislation is a long-term measure that will neither become effective nor solve the problems facing us at once. I remember our departmental colleague responsible for public health replied that preparation work for the legislative amendments would be finished no earlier than the end of this year. In other words, we are unable to plug the existing loopholes by finishing the work on
Page 138 of 100
Page 138 of 498
Page 138 of 498