XN000022-1996-01-24 — Page 55

- 29.

Pre-packed food products inspection

Following is a question by the Hon Mok Ying-fan and a written reply by the Secretary for Health and Welfare, Mrs Katherine Fok, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question:

Recently, some paper-packed drinks have been found to have been contaminated with bacteria, and this has aroused doubts about the effectiveness of the monitoring of food hygiene by the Department of Health, and the efficiency as well as the adequacy of staff resources of the department. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Reply:

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

of the number of Health Inspectors in the Department who are assigned to carry out inspections of packed food products and drinks on the market;

of the number of Health Inspectors in the Department who can be deployed on an urgent basis in the event of an emergency;

whether the Department has any contingency measures on how to cope with emergencies similar to the incident mentioned above; if so, whether such contingency measures include arrangements for immediate press release and deployment of staff;

whether the Department has put in place a set of rules stipulating that actions should be taken and relevant information be disseminated to the public in the event of the number of complaints on contaminated food products and drinks received reaching a certain level; and

whether the Department has any regular inspection system for conducting sample checks and laboratory tests on various types of food products and drinks available on the market?

The regular inspection of pre-packed food products on sale in the local market is carried out by a dedicated surveillance unit staffed by 33 health inspectorate staff under the Hygiene Division of the Department of Health.