ENG-2011 — Page 240

200 Food Safety, Environmental Hygiene, Agriculture and Fisheries

were slaughtered at the three facilities. Meat supplied by the slaughterhouses has to pass inspection by health officials before delivery to markets.

The FEHD's Intelligence Unit continued to track down vendors selling chilled meat as fresh meat, and joined forces with the Customs and Excise Department and the Hong Kong Police regularly to curb meat smuggling. In 2011, they carried out a total of 43 raids, made 38 prosecutions and seized 12 tonnes of smuggled meat. The crackdown also resulted in termination of one market stall tenancy.

Public Education

The FEHD runs a Health Education Exhibition and Resource Centre in Kowloon Park, Tsim Sha Tsui, to create greater public understanding of food safety and environmental hygiene.

During the year, the centre organised 2 775 health talks for the general public and target groups, including food handlers, school children, the elderly and ethnic minorities. A motor vehicle was also used as a mobile education centre to help drive home the food safety and environmental hygiene message.

On food safety, the CFS has a Communication Resource Unit in the Fa Yuen Street Municipal Services Building in Mong Kok that organises food safety programmes and provides technical support to people in the food trade and the public.

The CFS invites food trade associations and licensed food premises to be signatories to a Food Safety Charter drawn up to promote good, safety practices in the handling of foods. In 2011-12, a total of 21 food trade associations and over 2 200 food premises and retail outlets signed up to the charter.

The CFS conducted 153 health talks on food safety during the year. It also employed two vans to broadcast food safety messages to people in housing estates, markets and in different districts.

In 2011, the CFS launched a two-year enhanced progamme to promote nutrition labelling while it continued its work on educating and motivating people to pay more attention to nutrition labels to help them make suitable food choices.

Primary Production

Hong Kong's agriculture and fisheries industries are relatively small. They do not receive Government subsidies, but are assisted by the Government in improving the quality of their output, their productivity and competitiveness.

The combined output of the two industries in 2011 was worth $3.26 billion. Vegetables accounted for 3 per cent; cut flowers, 28 per cent; live pigs, 7 per cent; live poultry, 58 per cent; freshwater fish, 4 per cent; and local seafood, 25 per cent. Some 16 400 people were employed directly in these industries in 2011.

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