Press Releases
Actions taken to ensure the food safety of freshwater fish
The Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, today (August 26)
briefed the Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene of the Legislative
Council the actions taken by the Administration to enhance the food safety of
freshwater fish.
He told the panel that upon learning the presence of malachite green in
freshwater fish, an inter-departmental working group, which he chaired, was set
to follow up the latest development of the incident and formulate measures. Test
results of freshwater fish samples were updated daily since August 21 to address
the public's concern on malachite green in freshwater fish.
The panel was told that the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region and the State General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection
and Quarantine (AQSIQ) had agreed on the actions to be taken to control supply
of freshwater fish to Hong Kong at sources. These included:
* Freshwater fish supply to Hong Kong can only be provided by fish farms which
are registered in the Mainland and approved by the Food and Environmental
Hygiene Department (FEHD);
* All freshwater fish supplied by registered and approved farms should be
accompanied with health certificates when entering Hong Kong to certify that
they are free from malachite green or any other harmful pesticides and chemical
substances;
* FEHD to send staff to registered and approved freshwater fish and aquaculture
farms in the Mainland for inspection;
* Technical exchange on freshwater fish farming and aquaculture technique will
be conducted between Hong Kong and the Mainland; arrangements will be made for
technical staff to visit fish farms and exchange experiences; and
* Examine the need to amend the legislation to require importers to seek prior
approval before the import of aquatic products.
Dr Chow said a consensus was reached with AQSIQ on further enhancing the
communication and notification mechanism.
"Hong Kong will be promptly informed of any food safety incidents arising from
Mainland's export markets for which similar food products are also supplied to
Hong Kong in order to ensure our better understanding of any major food safety
problem in the Mainland," he said.
In addition, seven samples of live eels imported from other countries were
tested today. All of them were confirmed to be negative of malachite green.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau noted that
according to the data obtained from recent tests, the levels of malachite green
detected in eel and freshwater fish samples at present was unlikely to cause
adverse health effects.
"According to the latest information obtained by the Government Laboratory and
the risk assessment by FEHD, with the level of malachite green detected in the
samples (using the mean level), a person would only suffer from adverse health
effects if he or she consumes more than seven kg of eels/eel products or 290 kg
of freshwater fish each day over a prolonged period," the spokesman said.
Ends/Friday, August 26, 2005
Issued at HKT 20:50
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