With a view to improving Hong Kong’s food safety, the Chief Executive in his 2007 Policy Address announced that the Government would propose new legislation to enhance the food regulatory regime.  Accordingly, the Government has now come up with the proposed Food Safety Bill, which seeks to provide for a comprehensive registration scheme for food importers and distributors, and to require them to maintain proper transaction records of imported food, so that in the event of a food incident, the sources and points of sale of the food concerned can be traced by the Government swiftly and thoroughly.  In addition, the Bill empowers the authorities to issue an order to prohibit the import or sale of the problem food and to issue a recall order when the situation warrants.

The Government is now consulting stakeholders on the proposed Bill.  Members may refer to Annex for its key provisions (additional details can be found at the following website: www.legco.hk/yr07-08/english/panels/fseh/papers/fe1211cb2-516-1-e.pdf).   To facilitate public discussion of the proposed Bill, the Food and Health Bureau will organise two consultation forums as follows:

	1st Forum	2nd Forum
Date:	20 February 2008	13 March 2008
Time:	10:00am – 12:00noon	2:30pm – 4:30pm
Venue:	Lecture Theatre, G/F., Hong Kong Central Library, 66 Causeway Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong	Hall, 2/F, Lai Chi Kok Government Offices, 19 Lai Wan Road, Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon

Views Sought

        Members wishing to attend the public consultation forums are invited to contact Jeffreys Tsang at 2732 3197 or jeffreys.tsang@fhki.org.hk by 10 February 2008 to arrange the enrollment.  Members are also invited to refer any views they may have on the proposed Food Safety Bill to the FHKI by 7 March 2008 via fax at 2721 3494 or e-mail at jeffreys.tsang@fhki.org.hk. 

ANNEX

Key Provisions of the Proposed Food Safety Bill

1.     Definition of “Food”

The definition of “food” in the existing Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance does not include live fish (except shell fish), live amphibian and water.  The Government proposes to broaden the definition of “food” under the new Food Safety Bill to cover live fish, live amphibian as well as ice.

2.     Mandatory Registration Scheme for Food Importers and Distributors

The Government proposes to include in the Food Safety Bill a mandatory requirement for all food importers and distributors to register with the Food Safety Authority, namely, the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene.  Only those who have registered with the Food Safety Authority will be allowed to import food into Hong Kong.  It will be an offence if a food importer fails to comply with this requirement upon enactment of the Food Safety Bill.  Whether importers need to comply with other additional requirements will depend on the food types they import.

Likewise, food distributors will be required to register with the Food Safety Authority and inform the Authority of the types of food that they distribute before they are allowed to conduct food distribution business in Hong Kong.  The registration requirement equally applies to food coming from overseas or is locally produced.

The registration for food importers and distributors will be for a period of three years, subject to renewal.  Registration fee will be charged on a full-cost recovery basis.

3.     Food Traceability – Record-Keeping Requirement

The Government proposes that all food importers and distributors will be required to keep records of the business from which it obtained its food and the business to which it supplied the food.  The record-keeping requirement will also apply to all food retailers. However, the Government will only require food retailers to keep records of the business from which it obtained its food, but not information on the final consumers to whom it sold the food.

4.     Specific Import Control for Food Types

To strengthen import control, the Government proposes to adopt an incremental and risk-based approach in expanding the import control, initially over food with high potential health risk.  The Bill will also reserve powers for the Food Safety Authority to extend the various control measures to other food types should there be change in circumstances.

5.     Prohibition of Import and Sale of Problem Food and Mandatory Recall

The Government proposes to empower the Food Safety Authority to issue a prohibition of import order, prohibition of sale order and/or a recall order where the Authority has reasonable grounds to believe that the food concerned poses a serious health hazard to the public.