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HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
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Throughout the chicken slaughter exercise, the HKSAR government departments involved were thrown into chaos. There was no one to clear the chicken carcasses left behind. Even drivers coming to the scene for the transportation of chicken carcasses claimed that it was not their responsibility. While drivers were only responsible for driving, carcass collection was the exclusive duty of carcass-collectors and there was no co-operation between both sides. In the mean time, a high-level task force chaired by the Chief Secretary for Administration was set up to deal with the case which was previously handled by a mere expert group formed by the Deputy Director of Health. As a matter of fact, all these changes came too late. From the outset, the senior levels in the government simply under-estimated the seriousness of the incident and tried to reduce the trouble to the minimum. This fully reflects the poor leadership of the HKSAR Government. But late is better than never. Our bad experience in the whole series of food hygiene issues should make us realize that a reform to the food hygiene and import quarantine system of Hong Kong is inevitable.
Hong Kong is a subtropical city with a high humidity, providing a desirable breeding ground for bacteria that survive at a temperature range of 50°C to 63°C. Coupled with its dense population, Hong Kong has a higher spreading rate of epidemic disease than other foreign countries. More importantly, Hong Kong has to rely on food imports and their sources are completely beyond the control of the Hong Kong SAR Government. In recent years, there is the introduction of strategic control and risk management concepts in western countries, requiring the responsibility on food to be shared by the government, food producers and consumers. A hierarchy of quality control is also applied to the production process so as to control food qualities. This advanced production process is based on a surveillance system of stringent import control and sampling inspection of products found in the market. It is a process that the health departments of Hong Kong would like to follow and is in fact suitable for the special conditions of the territory. Small governments are becoming more and more popular in the western countries which ask for the collective responsibility of both producers and consumers. However, Hong Kong must retain its system of extensive interference by a big government in order to ensure public health. In the light of this, the Democratic Party demands that the government should review the capacity and efficiency of Man Kam To and other import control points in the inspection of poultry, frozen meat and other food products. A new quarantine building besides that of the Department of Health should be constructed to inspect imported poultry. Secondly, the existing laws on food and the entire judicial process should be reviewed in order to confer statutory power to the Hong Kong Government for exercising efficient and effective food control. As for the details, Mr. Lau Hok-lim will provide an explanation later. Thirdly, the overall sampling ratio and sampling efficiency of food imports and those found in the market should be increased so as to ensure the health of the people of Hong Kong.
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