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Following is a question by the Hon Emily Lau and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (March 14):
Question:
Under the Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) (Amendment) Regulation 2004, if prepackaged food products contain any of the eight categories of substances that are known to cause allergy in some people, the name of the substance shall be specified in the list of ingredients on the labels concerned. The grace period for this requirement will expire in July this year. However, members of the food industry have indicated that it is difficult for them to comply with the requirement. They point out that the majority of the food products for sale in Hong Kong are imported from the Mainland or foreign countries and some of these places do not have similar labelling requirements. Importers and retailers may not be able to obtain information on the composition of the food products concerned; hence it is difficult for them to label the food products accordingly. In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council:
(a) whether they have taken heed of the worries of members of the food industry; if so, how assistance will be provided to them to solve the technical problems of labelling imported foods as required;
(b) of the measures in place to assist members of the food industry in adapting to the labelling requirement; and
(c) whether the authorities will consider deferring the implementation of the labelling requirement to allow members of the food industry more time to make preparations?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) & (b) We do understand the concerns of the trade over the newly amended food labelling legislation and have held discussions with the trade at different forums, including Legislative Council meetings, during the legislative amendment process in 2004. We have also adopted various measures to assist the trade, including the addition of defence provisions in the Amendment Regulation. It would be a defence if a trader can prove that he has used his best endeavours to obtain the relevant information from importers or manufacturers and has reasonably and in good faith relied on the information so furnished and, in cases where the importers or manufacturers claimed that the food contains any of the eight allergenic substances, has required the exporters or importers to mark and label as such on the packaging; or (ii) where the trader has in good faith marked on the food that he does not know whether the food consists of or contains any of the eight allergenic substances (for instance, it may be marked as "the food may contain crustacean and crustacean products").
In addition to the defence provisions, to help the trade adapt to the legislative requirements brought by the amendments, we have also published a Labelling Guidelines on Food Allergens, Food Additives and Date Format in connection with the Amendment Regulation for reference of the trade in August 2005, after discussion with them. The Guidelines has been uploaded to the website of the Centre for Food Safety. Moreover, we have been answering enquiries from the trade to help them adapt to the legislative requirements brought by the amendments and to change their product labels as necessary.
(c) To give the trade sufficient time to clear their old stock and update their product labels to comply with the Amendment Regulation, we have extended the grace period from the original 18 months to 30 months i.e. till January 2007, as agreed at a meeting of Subcommittee on Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) (Amendment) Regulation 2004. In response to the trade's request, we have further extended the 30-month grace period to 36 months, i.e. to July 9, 2007. We consider that the trade should have sufficient time to seek information about product ingredients from the exporters concerned and, where necessary, arrange tests for the product ingredients and update the product labels. To further extend the grace period would be unfair to those who have already updated their food labels before July 9, 2007. It would also lead to the situation of products containing allergenic substances displaying or not displaying the label "it may contain allergenic substances", thereby causing inconvenience and confusion to consumers. For these reasons, we have no intention to further extend the grace period.
Ends/Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Issued at HKT 12:15
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