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LCQ14: Food surveillance programme
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     Following is a question by the Dr Hon Lam Tai-fai and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (February 18):

Question:

     To ensure food safety, the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) implements the food surveillance programme, under which samples of food items are taken regularly at three levels, namely import, wholesale and retail levels, for microbiological and chemical testing.  Moreover, I have learnt that the Government is outsourcing such testing work to private laboratories progressively.  In this connection, will the Government inform this council:

(a)  whether CFS has reviewed its criteria for taking food samples since its establishment; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(b)  whether it will increase the number and widen the scope of food samples taken; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(c)  of the average unit time and cost of microbiological and chemical tests conducted by various government laboratories, and how such figures compare with the relevant figures of similar tests conducted by private laboratories; and

(d)  of the respective numbers and percentages of microbiological and chemical tests conducted by government laboratories and private laboratories last year; and whether it will consider increasing the ratio of outsourced tests, in order to reduce the workload of government laboratories?

Reply:

President,

(a)  The Food Surveillance Programme is a major tool of the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) to ascertain the safety of food available in the local market and it serves as an alert system.  The CFS takes samples of a range of food items at different levels along the food chain, covering the import, wholesale and retail levels (including restaurants, food factories, fresh provision shops, supermarket chains, mini-supermarkets, retail markets etc.) for microbiological and chemical testing to ensure that the foods offered for sale are fit for human consumption and comply with the relevant legislation.  Microbiological testing covers bacteria and viruses, while chemical testing includes natural toxins, food additives and contaminants.  In 2008, over 66,000 food samples were tested under the Food Surveillance Programme, with a satisfactory rate of over 99%.

     The CFS has since 2007 adopted a three-tier surveillance strategy, consisting of routine food surveillance, targeted food surveillance and seasonal food surveillance.  The CFS determines the types of food samples to be collected, the frequency and number of samples for testing, and the types of laboratory analyses to be conducted according to various factors, including food risks, local and overseas food safety incidents and food poisoning cases in the past, and conviction records of the food premises concerned.  The sampling strategy is under regular review, taking into account all the latest overseas and local risk analyses.

     Apart from the routine food surveillance on the major types of food commodities (such as fruits and vegetables, meat, aquatic products, milk and cereals), the targeted surveillance projects conducted by the CFS in 2008 included those on microbiological quality of lunch boxes and ice-cream, Sudan dyes in eggs and egg products, sulphur dioxide in meat, etc.  Surveillance on seasonal food is conducted to assess the safety of food items that are particularly popular during festivals and holiday seasons, including festive food of Lunar New Year, rice dumplings, mooncakes, hairy crabs, etc.  In 2008, the CFS also conducted a number of surveys on popular food items, including various types of breakfast food, street snacks, and children snacks.

(b)  In general, the safety of food available in Hong Kong is maintained at a high standard, with the average satisfactory rate of food testing standing at 99%.  The CFS tests about 65,000 food samples every year.  When compared with overseas places, Hong Kong has a higher number of samples tested per 1,000 population, and is broadly in line with our international counterparts.  The existing sample size can serve to monitor and provide an early alert to ensure food safety.  As mentioned above in (a), the CFS reviews the sampling strategy regularly by taking into account the latest assessment on food safety.  Some recent adjustments introduced to the strategy include the incorporation of the testing of melamine into the routine surveillance programme, stepping up the testing of sulphur dioxide added in beef due to recent increased detection of such irregularity, and conducting of surveys on other popular food items (e.g. cart noodles, local desserts).

(c)  The turnaround time and cost of food testing vary with the type of food, the testing parameters, as well as the number of sample.  Depending on the type of food tested and the testing parameters (such as heavy metals, pesticide residues and micro-organisms), the actual time required for the tests ranges roughly from 1 to 10 working days based on past experience, and the most complex type of tests may take about 30 days.  In addition, the cost of the tests varies with the testing parameters.  For example, for the chemical testing on food outsourced by Government Laboratory in 2008 (including sulphur dioxide, preservatives and organo-chlorine pesticide residues), the cost of testing by Government Laboratory is comparable to the price offered by the private laboratories, which is about $600 per sample on the average.  For testing of bacteria, the cost of testing conducted by the Department of Health is about several hundred to over a thousand dollars, while the cost of virus testing is about three thousand dollars.  The Government does not have information regarding the cost for microbiological testing (including bacteria and virus) in comparison with the private market.

(d)  Starting from 2008-09, Government Laboratory has outsourced part of the routine chemical testing of food to private laboratories.  The number of tests outsourced in 2008-09 amounted to 22,000 tests, equivalent to about 15% of the routine food tests in the fiscal year.  We are planning to increase the number of tests outsourced in the coming year.  The resources thus saved will be deployed to conduct method development for new tests, to provide testing services in support of new food legislation to enhance food safety, to conduct testing work involving litigation, and to assist in contract management.  At this stage, the Government has no plan to outsource microbiological tests.

Ends/Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Issued at HKT 15:16

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