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The Government briefed the Legislative Council Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene today (March 10) on the procedures to be adopted in the resumption of the importation of chilled and frozen poultry from the Mainland and the related control measures.
The Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Mrs Carrie Yau, informed the panel that the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) would start to accept applications for the importation of chilled and frozen poultry meat from the Mainland tomorrow (March 11).
"We have been monitoring the avian influenza outbreak situation in the Mainland very closely before we decided to resume the imports. As time is required to prepare for the resumption of importation of poultry meat, it is expected that the first consignment of Mainland poultry meat will arrive in Hong Kong in the week starting March 22," she said.
Speaking on the importation, a spokesman for the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau reiterated that the Government's first priority was to protect public health and ensure the safety of food consumed by the public.
"When we consider whether the restrictions on the importation of poultry meat should be lifted, we have to assess the risk posed by poultry meat against these two objectives.
"As the avian influenza outbreak situation in the region has started to ease off, we have decided to lift the restrictions on the importation of chilled and frozen poultry from the Mainland having regard to the recommendations of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) that these products pose relatively less risk to human health," the spokesman said.
"Factors taken into consideration include the outbreak situation of the affected country/area and whether sufficient control measures have been imposed by the relevant authority in the affected country/area to prevent the reoccurrence or the spread of avian influenza in poultry.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department has implemented a programme to control the importation of chilled or frozen poultry meat from the Mainland. It covers farms, slaughtering plants, the slaughtering procedures, transportation and health certification.
In relation to the resumption of importation of poultry meat from the Mainland, the Government has reached agreement with the relevant Mainland authority to adopt the following additional measures to ensure the hygiene standard of poultry products from the Mainland and to enhance consumers' confidence:
* The Inspection and Quarantine Bureau at the place of origin will seal the consignments and include information on the seal in the relevant health certificate.
* Offal must be removed from all imported chilled and frozen poultry and will not be allowed to be imported during the initial period of resumption of importation.
* The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will hold the first three consignments of poultry products from each Guangdong processing plant and test it for the presence of the H5 virus.
Ends/Wednesday, March 10, 2004
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