CFS announces food safety report for December and summary for 2014

The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department today (January 30) released the findings of its food safety report for last month (December 2014). Out of some 10 900 food samples tested, other than the 35 unsatisfactory samples which were announced earlier, two milk beverage samples were found not to contain milk fat. The overall satisfactory rate was 99.7 per cent.

A CFS spokesman said about 2 900 food samples had been taken for chemical tests. Some 1 700 samples were collected for microbiological tests and the remaining 6 300 (including about 5 800 samples taken from food imported from Japan) were collected for testing of radiation levels.

The microbiological tests covered pathogens and hygienic indicators, while the chemical tests were aimed at detecting pesticides, preservatives, metallic contamination, colouring matters, veterinary drug residues, plasticisers and others.

The samples included vegetables and fruits and their products; meat and poultry and their products; aquatic and related products; milk, milk products and frozen confections; and cereals, grains and their products.

Vegetables, fruits and their products
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The CFS took about 2 100 samples of fresh vegetables, fruits, legumes, preserved vegetables and pickled fruits, dried vegetables and ready-to-eat vegetables for analysis. Except for those unsatisfactory samples announced earlier, which included 11 vegetable samples with levels of pesticide residues exceeding the legal limits, a black pepper dried bean curd sample found to contain Dimethyl yellow, a bottled fermented bean curd sample contaminated by Bacillus cereus and a dried apricot sample detected with excessive preservative, all samples were satisfactory.

Meat, poultry and their products
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The CFS completed the testing of about 800 samples, including fresh, chilled and frozen pork, beef and poultry, ready-to-eat dishes of meat and poultry served at food establishments, and meat- and poultry-made products such as Chinese preserved meat, sausages and ham. Other than a prepackaged meatball sample found to contain an undeclared sweetener which was announced earlier, all the samples passed the analyses.

Aquatic and related products
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The CFS took some 1 700 samples of fish, shellfish, shrimp, prawn, crab and squid and their products for analysis. Other than 16 imported geoduck clam samples detected with paralytic shellfish poisoning toxin and three imported raw oyster samples found to contain cadmium over legal limit as announced earlier, the samples were all satisfactory.

Milk, milk products and frozen confections
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About 500 samples of ice-cream, cheese, milk and milk products were collected for analysis. In addition to a durian-flavoured ice-cream sample with a coliform count exceeding legal limits as announced earlier, two milk beverage samples were found not containing milk fat, in contravention of the legal requirement that milk beverages should contain not less than 0.1% fat.

Results of other tests were satisfactory.

Cereals, grains and their products
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The CFS took about 500 samples of rice, noodles, flour, bread and breakfast cereals for analysis. All samples passed the tests.

Other food commodities
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The CFS took about 5 300 food samples consisting of mixed dishes, dim sum, beverages, sushi, sashimi, sugar, sweets, condiments, sauces, snacks, eggs and egg products for tests. All results were satisfactory.

Conclusion
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The CFS has taken follow-up actions on the unsatisfactory samples including informing the trade concerned of the test results, instructing the trade concerned to stop sale of the incriminated food items, tracing the source of the food items in question and taking follow-up samples for analysis.

The spokesman reminded the food trade to ensure that their food is fit for consumption and meets legal requirements. Consumers should patronise reliable shops when buying food and maintain a balanced diet to minimise food risk.


Summary of food surveillance programme for 2014
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Concluding the food surveillance programme for 2014, the spokesman said that apart from routine food surveillance, the CFS conducted a number of targeted as well as seasonal and popular food surveillance projects.

"In addition to 61 500 samples of imported Japanese food taken for testing of radiation level in response to the Fukushima nuclear power plant incident in Japan, about 64 000 samples were tested by the CFS last year. The overall satisfactory rate was 99.8 per cent, which was comparable to the results in recent years. This indicates that food safety has been maintained at a high standard in Hong Kong," he said.

"The exceedances or breaches for most of the unsatisfactory samples were not serious and would not pose adverse health effects to the general public. For individual food items with unsatisfactory test results, the CFS has taken prompt and effective risk management actions to safeguard public health," he said.

He added that in planning the food surveillance programme, the CFS would always take into consideration a number of factors such as the food consumption level and the risk of the food concerned in deciding the number of samples to be tested, the frequency of sampling as well as the testing parameters. In addition, the CFS would also adjust its food surveillance programmes and strengthen relevant testing with regard to local and overseas food incidents as well as past surveillance data, in particular for breaches of regulatory requirement that occurred more frequently, so as to ensure food safety in Hong Kong.

In addition, the spokesman said that the CFS has enhanced enforcement actions in the implementation of the Nutrition Labelling Scheme for prepackaged food since October 1, 2014.

"The Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) (Amendment: Requirements for Nutrition Labelling and Nutrition Claim) Regulation 2008, which introduced the Nutrition Labelling Scheme for prepackaged food, has been implemented for four years since it came into operation on July 1, 2010. The trade should be very familiar with and capable of strictly abiding by the requirements stipulated in the relevant provisions. The CFS also issued the 'Trade Guidelines on Preparation of Legible Food Label' in May 2012 to assist the trade in providing clear and legible information on the food labels. In view of this, when the CFS identifies any non-compliance with the requirements, including failure to provide labels meeting the legibility requirement, it will initiate prosecution immediately without allowing any time for rectification," the spokesman said.

Since October 1, the CFS has taken 14 prosecutions in relation to non-compliance with the nutrition labelling requirements in prepackaged food as at December 31.

Furthermore, between August 1 last year, when the Pesticide Residues in Food Regulation (Cap 132CM) came into effect and the end of 2014, the CFS took over 10 700 food samples at import, wholesale and retail levels for the testing of pesticide residues. Of these, 39 samples were found to be unsatisfactory while the remaining ones were all satisfactory. The overall unsatisfactory rate was less than 0.4 per cent.

According to the findings of the risk assessment conducted by the CFS, it is unlikely for the great majority of the unsatisfactory samples to pose immediate adverse health effects under normal consumption.

Ends/Friday, January 30, 2015