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The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) will continue to make every effort to protect public health through its regular food surveillance programme.
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The department will also review the way in the dissemination of food safety information under the programme to enable the public to make a better informed choice in their consumption of food products, a department spokesman said today (November 9).
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The remark was made following the release of the results of the department's food surveillance programme yesterday.
Speaking on the results, the spokesman reiterated that the very low level of malachite green in the three samples of canned mud carp were unlikely to cause adverse health effects.
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According to level of malachite green detected in the freshwater fish samples in August this year, a person would only suffer from adverse effects if he or she consumed more than 290 kg of freshwater fish each day over a prolonged period, the spokesman said, adding that the situation of malachite green has been improved significantly since August because the amount of malachite green detected in recent samples was generally very low.
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"It is unlikely that such an exposure would lead to adverse health effect," the spokesman said.
In this recent incident, the spokesman said, once unsatisfactory canned fish samples were detected, FEHD has followed up with the suppliers concerned to stop the sale of the same batch of food products in question. The department has also inspected retail outlets and collected the food products concerned for further tests.
The spokesman stressed that the department has made every effort to safeguard public health and it has been the department's practice to immediately release details of any failing food sample if it would impose serious health hazards on members of the public.
"The routine food surveillance programme works on the basis of risk assessment. After considering the very low level of the chemical present in the canned fish samples , the existing arrangements relating to follow up actions were deemed adequate to safeguard public health and were on a par with international practices," the spokesman said.
Ends/Wednesday, November 9, 2005
Issued at HKT 19:40
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