1995 — Page 434

Urban Council Proceedings 市政局議事錄 All AI Reviewed

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

147

and the existing legislation without delay, so as to prevent the recurrence of such incidents and protect the health of the general public.

To sum up, the Democratic Party is particularly concerned about the monitoring of food hygiene in food importation and production as well as the emergency measures, legislation, administrative power and policy-making mechanism relating to this issue.

Firstly, with regard to the control of imported food, at present the Department of Health has imposed strict regulations on the importation of dairy products, poultry and frozen meat, etc. and these food products must get a licence before they can be imported into Hong Kong. For non-dairy cartoned drinks, when they are sold in Hong Kong, the Department of Health will sample the products and carry out laboratory tests on them in accordance with WHO standards. Since only 3 samples will be taken out of 1,000, every year the Department of Health can only get 60,000 or 70,000 samples of various types of food for laboratory tests.

Since we have a very wide variety of food products sold in Hong Kong, such sampling procedure may not be able to cover all areas. In fact, the Vitasoy incident in Shenzhen has revealed that without any comprehensive regulatory policies on imported food, the sampling procedure itself may not be sufficient. I think it is necessary to monitor imported food. Of course, we are not saying that all cartoned drinks should be regarded as putrescible products, because soya milk products are different from other cartoned drinks and milk. Relatively speaking, milk is more putrescible. Usually, cartoned drinks turn sour because there may be damages during the transportation or packing stages and as a result, they have contracted certain bacteria. In view of this, the Democratic Party would like to urge the Department of Health to draw up some guidelines and to request local and overseas food manufacturers to produce detailed records about the manufacturing process, ingredients, sterilisation process and laboratory test report, etc. of their products so that whenever there are problems, the Department of Health will be able to get such information immediately. At the same time, manufacturers should also hire some independent and licensed laboratories to carry out laboratory tests and submit the results to the Department of Health. This, together with the sampling procedures conducted by the Department of Health, will be able to minimise the chances of occurrence of such problems.

The second point concerns the monitoring of local food producers. Local food products should be produced in premises or factories of licensed food factories. Health Inspectors of the 2 Municipal Services Departments should make frequent visits to these factories to inspect the environment and hygienic condition of food processing. The Department of Health should also take samples from the market and carry out regular inspections and laboratory tests. But very often, because application procedures for licenses are complicated, many operators operate without licenses or operate while they

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL 147 and the existing legislation without delay, so as to prevent the recurrence of such incidents and protect the health of the general public. To sum up, the Democratic Party is particularly concerned about the monitoring of food hygiene in food importation and production as well as the emergency measures, legislation, administrative power and policy-making mechanism relating to this issue. Firstly, with regard to the control of imported food, at present the Department of Health has imposed strict regulations on the importation of dairy products, poultry and frozen meat, etc. and these food products must get a licence before they can be imported into Hong Kong. For non-dairy cartoned drinks, when they are sold in Hong Kong, the Department of Health will sample the products and carry out laboratory tests on them in accordance with WHO standards. Since only 3 samples will be taken out of 1,000, every year the Department of Health can only get 60,000 or 70,000 samples of various types of food for laboratory tests. Since we have a very wide variety of food products sold in Hong Kong, such sampling procedure may not be able to cover all areas. In fact, the Vitasoy incident in Shenzhen has revealed that without any comprehensive regulatory policies on imported food, the sampling procedure itself may not be sufficient. I think it is necessary to monitor imported food. Of course, we are not saying that all cartoned drinks should be regarded as putrescible products, because soya milk products are different from other cartoned drinks and milk. Relatively speaking, milk is more putrescible. Usually, cartoned drinks turn sour because there may be damages during the transportation or packing stages and as a result, they have contracted certain bacteria. In view of this, the Democratic Party would like to urge the Department of Health to draw up some guidelines and to request local and overseas food manufacturers to produce detailed records about the manufacturing process, ingredients, sterilisation process and laboratory test report, etc. of their products so that whenever there are problems, the Department of Health will be able to get such information immediately. At the same time, manufacturers should also hire some independent and licensed laboratories to carry out laboratory tests and submit the results to the Department of Health. This, together with the sampling procedures conducted by the Department of Health, will be able to minimise the chances of occurrence of such problems. The second point concerns the monitoring of local food producers. Local food products should be produced in premises or factories of licensed food factories. Health Inspectors of the 2 Municipal Services Departments should make frequent visits to these factories to inspect the environment and hygienic condition of food processing. The Department of Health should also take samples from the market and carry out regular inspections and laboratory tests. But very often, because application procedures for licenses are complicated, many operators operate without licenses or operate while they Page 434 of 485 Page 434 of 485 Page 434 of 485

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Page 434 o HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL 147 and the existing legislation without delay, so as to prevent the recurrence of such incidents and protect the health of the general public. To sum up, the Democratic Party is particularly concerned about the monitoring of food hygiene in food importation and production as well as the emergency measures, legislation, administrative power and policy-making mechanism relating to this issue. Firstly, with regard to the control of imported food, at present the Department of Health has imposed strict regulations on the importation of dairy products, poultry and frozen meat, etc and these food products must get a licence before they can be imported into Hong Kong. For non-dairy cartoned drinks, when they are sold in Hong Kong, the Department of Health will sample the products and carry out laboratory tests on them in accordance with WHO standards. Since only 3 samples will be taken out of 1 000, every year the Department of Health can only get 60 000 or 70 000 samples of various types of food for laboratory tests. Since we have a very wide variety of food products sold in Hong Kong, such sampling procedure may not be able to cover all areas. In fact, the Vitasoy incident in Shenzheng has revealed that without any comprehensive regulatory policies on imported food, the sampling procedure itself may not be sufficient. I think it is necessary to monitor imported food. Of course we are not saying that all cartoned drinks should be regarded as putrescible products, because soya milk products are different from other cartoned drinks and milk. Relatively speaking, milk is more putrescible. Usually cartoned drinks turn sour because there may be damages during the transportation or packing stages and as a result, they have contracted certain bacteria. In view of this, the Democratic Party would like to urge the Department of Health to draw up some guidelines and to request local and overseas food manufacturers to produce detailed records about the manufacturing process, ingredients, sterilisation process and laboratory test report etc. of their products so that whenever there are problems, the Department of Health will be able to get such information immediately. At the same time, manufacturers should also hire some independent and licensed laboratories to carry out laboratory tests and submit the results to the Department of Health. This, together with the sampling procedures conducted by the Department of Health, will be able to minimise the chances of occurrence of such problems. The second point concerns the monitoring of local food producers. Local food products should be produced in premises or factories of licensed food factories. Health Inspectors of the 2 Municipal Services Departments should make frequent visits to these factories to inspect the environment and hygienic condition of food processing. The Department of Health should also take samples from the market and carry out regular inspections and laboratory tests. But very often, because application procedures for licenses are complicated, many operators operate without licenses or operate while they Page 434 of Page 434 of 485 Page 434 of 485

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Page 434 o

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

147

and the existing legislation without delay, so as to prevent the recurrence of such incidents and protect the health of the general public.

Firstly, with regard to the control of imported food, at present the Department of Health has imposed strict regulations on the importation of dairy products, poultry and frozen meat, etc and these food products must get a licence before they can be imported into Hong Kong. For non-dairy cartoned drinks, when they are sold in Hong Kong, the Department of Health will sample the products and carry out laboratory tests on them in accordance with WHO standards. Since only 3 samples will be taken out of 1 000, every year the Department of Health can only get 60 000 or 70 000 samples of various types of food for laboratory tests.

Since we have a very wide variety of food products sold in Hong Kong, such sampling procedure may not be able to cover all areas. In fact, the Vitasoy incident in Shenzheng has revealed that without any comprehensive regulatory policies on imported food, the sampling procedure itself may not be sufficient. I think it is necessary to monitor imported food. Of course we are not saying that all cartoned drinks should be regarded as putrescible products, because soya milk products are different from other cartoned drinks and milk. Relatively speaking, milk is more putrescible. Usually cartoned drinks turn sour because there may be damages during the transportation or packing stages and as a result, they have contracted certain bacteria. In view of this, the Democratic Party would like to urge the Department of Health to draw up some guidelines and to request local and overseas food manufacturers to produce detailed records about the manufacturing process, ingredients, sterilisation process and laboratory test report etc. of their products so that whenever there are problems, the Department of Health will be able to get such information immediately. At the same time, manufacturers should also hire some independent and licensed laboratories to carry out laboratory tests and submit the results to the Department of Health. This, together with the sampling procedures conducted by the Department of Health, will be able to minimise the chances of occurrence of such problems.

1995 — Page 434

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