ENG-2016 — Page 204

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Food Safety, Environmental Hygiene, Agriculture and Fisheries

to the Liquor Licensing Board, an independent statutory body that issues liquor licences, including those for clubs.

During 2016, the department issued 8,820 full, provisional and temporary food business licences, 909 permits for restricted foods (including 151 online restricted food permits issued since 22 February), 1,548 licences for places of public entertainment, 41 licences for other trades, 1,055 liquor and club liquor licences, and four permits for karaoke establishments in premises with restaurant licences.

The department accepts submissions of applications for food business/trade licences and permits through the internet.

Food Safety and Labelling

The Centre for Food Safety under the FEHD is responsible for safeguarding food sold in Hong Kong, ensuring it is safe and fit for consumption. About 65,400 samples of food were taken at import, wholesale and retail levels for chemical, microbiological and radiological testing in 2016. The overall satisfaction rate of these tests was 99.8 per cent.

During the year, about 34,000 vehicles carrying vegetables, and 37,712 vehicles carrying live food animals including pigs, cattle, goats and poultry, were inspected at the Food Control Office and Animal Inspection Station at Man Kam To. The station examined 2,083,055 live food animals and tested 8,499 blood and 50,741 urine, faecal and tissue samples for zoonotic disease and veterinary drug residues.

The nutrition labelling scheme requires pre-packaged foods, unless exempted, to carry labels that provide information about energy and specified nutrients, and also specifies the conditions for making nutrition claims. The scheme helps consumers make informed food choices, regulates misleading or deceptive labels and nutrition claims, and encourages food manufacturers to apply sound nutrition principles in formulating foods. In 2016, the centre conducted visual checks on 5,625 pre-packaged food products to ensure compliance with statutory '1+7'nutrition-labelling requirements' and took 518 food samples for chemical analysis to verify the nutrition information and nutrition claims. The overall compliance rate was 99 per

cent.

The Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) (Amendment) (No 2) Regulation 2014 mandates the nutrition labelling of infant formula, follow-up formula and pre-packaged food for infants and young children under the age of 36 months, and regulates the nutritional composition of infant formula. The requirements governing infant formula came into operation on 13 December 2015, while those on follow-up formula and pre-packaged food for infants and young children took effect on 13 June 2016. The centre conducted checks on these food products to ensure compliance with the statutory nutrition-labelling requirements and took samples for chemical analysis to verify the nutrition information and composition.

1 Under the requirements, all pre-packaged food shall carry a label stating the amounts of energy and seven core

nutrients: protein, carbohydrates, total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, sodium and sugars.

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