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HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
contaminated vegetables. It is of even greater concern to know that vegetables sold in our supermarkets contain pesticide residue.
Contaminated vegetables cases have occurred periodically in Hong Kong. It reflects the incompetence of the Department of Health and other departments in curbing the problem. Although a new inspection centre was opened at Mankamto in 96, contaminated vegetables have not stopped coming in. Certain loopholes have been discovered in the inspection and records and negligence on the part of the mainland government has been exposed.
With the weather getting cooler, the Department of Health has gradually increased the number of vegetable samples for inspection. The number of samples taken for October was 20% more than the number for August. Despite the claim by the Department of Health that over 95% of the daily importation of 240 truck loads of vegetables was checked, it has not succeeded in completely blocking out contaminated vegetables. Inspection work at Mankamto is carried out in one of two methods. One is by quick test paper. On average, 50% of truck loads through Mankamto are checked by random sampling in this way. Results are available in half an hour. On heavy rainy days or when there is sudden drop of temperature, sample checking goes up by 25%. At the same time, 50 samples are collected daily for intensive checks which take 2 to 3 hours. From this, we can see that loopholes exist in the sampling mechanism.
The Democratic Party is of the view that all truck loads of vegetables through Mankamto, not 95% of them, should at least go through the quick test paper testing.
For the spate of poisonous vegetable cases this year, the loophole lies in the Department of Health relying too heavily on cards issued by the mainland bureau. On the cards are recorded the name and number of the farm and whether a pesticide certificate is held. However, after the vegetables have been sold by the importer to wholesalers and retailers, the information is no longer kept. That is why we very often cannot trace the sources. As a result, we find the Department of Health slow in reaction and unable to stop the sale of or destroy contaminated vegetables at once.
Government should take the example of the basket card system used by the Vegetable Marketing Organization and require a card for each basket to record the production farm, importer, wholesaler. Each lot of vegetables should be allotted a reference number for easy tracing. If this can be done, whenever problems occur, contaminated vegetables can be confiscated instantly.
In the most recent case, the mainland government suspected that a driver had bought vegetables from a Getihu in Buji, not an accredited export vegetable farm, and then mixed them with those from accredited farms. So, on one hand, the mainland government was negligent in enforcement and on the
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