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Food surveillance figures for first quarter
The Department of Health carried out 11,451 examinations for chemical, bacteriological, and radioactivity tests under its regular food surveillance programme during the first quarter this year.
The programme is conducted by the department's Hygiene Division to monitor that food supplied to the community is wholesome, unadulterated and properly labelled.
Among the 8,438 examinations for chemical analysis, 8,378 were satisfactory while 60 or 0.71 per cent yielded unsatisfactory results.
The unsatisfactory cases were mainly due to food containing non-permitted or excessive food additives such as colouring matters and preservatives. About one-third of the cases involved the use of Orange II which has been banned for use in food since March last year.
In this regard, advisory letters were sent out in March this year to the food trades reminding them of the requirements. Surveillance will continue to be stepped up and action taken against offenders without further notice.
Out of the 2,914 samples taken for bacteriological examinations, 108 samples or 3.7 per cent yielded unsatisfactory results.
The unsatisfactory samples were mainly soft ice cream, milk, shellfish, fish and meat products giving excessive bacterial or coliform count.
level.
Of the 99 samples for redioactive examination, all were within the acceptable
During the period, the department received 46 reports of food poisoning cases, affecting 136 persons. Investigations showed that 27 cases happened in domestic setting while 17 cases took place in food-premises. The remaining two cases were from other sources.