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Following is a question by the Hon Li Wah-ming and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (November 21):
Question:
It has been reported that since February this year, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department ("FEHD") has implemented a new policy whereby licensed food premises which have fully implemented the food safety management system under ISO 22000 and obtained the ISO 22000 certification are subject to a revised inspection regime. Such food premises are excluded from the Demerit Points System ("DPS") and will only be fined if they are in contravention of the regulations. Their licences will not be suspended except in cases of major food incidents. Currently, there are eight restaurants which have been approved by FEHD to be exempted from regulation under DPS. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) why it has not consulted the Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene of this Council on the above new policy before its implementation;
(b) of the justifications for implementing such policy; and
(c) whether it has assessed if such policy is fair to other food premises; if it is not fair, of the ways of improvement; if it is fair, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
ISO 22000 is a food safety management system formally launched by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) on September 1, 2005. It has integrated the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) System developed by the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the quality management system ISO 9001 developed by ISO. ISO 22000 is currently the most rigorous international standard for food safety management.
ISO 22000-certified food premises are subject to audits by independent certification body every six to 12 months. Any deviation from the food safety management system detected would be recorded by the certification body and referred to the certified food premises for rectification. If any major deviation likely to affect food safety is detected, the certification body may withdraw the certification issued to the food premises immediately.
My reply to the three parts of the main question is as follows:
(a) On March 14 and April 6, 2006, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) sought the views of the Legislative Council Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene (the Panel) on the proposal to revamp the Demerit Point System (DPS) for licensed food premises. At the meetings, members of the Panel requested the Administration to provide more incentives for food business operators to improve the hygiene standard of their food premises. After active consideration of the feasibility of the proposal, FEHD put forward the proposal to slightly modify the regulatory mechanism for ISO 22000-certified food premises with a view to encouraging the trade to obtain ISO 22000 certification, thereby improving food safety and hygiene standard. Food premises participating in the scheme must fulfil the following three requirements:
(i) they should hold a valid provisional or full food premises licence issued by the FEHD;
(ii) they should have a good track record in the past 12 months in respect of the following:
*no breach of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance and its subsidiary legislation;
*no breach of any licensing requirements or conditions leading to the issue of warning letters;
*no temporary suspension of licence; and
*no temporary closure order made in respect of the food premises.
(iii) the entire food premises should be covered by valid ISO 22000 certification.
This scheme is in line with the suggestion made by the Panel to provide more incentives to encourage the food trade to improve the hygiene standard of food premises. Before implementation, FEHD consulted the trade on the scheme on December 8, 2006 and received general support.
(b) As ISO 22000-certified food premises are subject to regular audits by independent certification body, the scheme can provide a choice to the trade so that the trade would be encouraged to enhance its food safety and hygiene standard through self-regulation.
(c) Since the implementation of the scheme in February 2007, FEHD has approved 13 licensed food premises to join the scheme. All ISO 22000-certified food premises may join the scheme on a voluntary basis having regard to their own needs. While food premises recognised under the scheme by FEHD are excluded from the DPS, they will still be inspected by FEHD staff at intervals of about once every five months. Where a breach of any legislation, licensing requirements or conditions is detected, the FEHD will take appropriate enforcement actions and also consider disqualifying the food premises concerned from the scheme. As such, the implementation of this scheme is not unfair to other food premises.
Ends/Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Issued at HKT 14:21
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