Press Releases
Separate regulation and facilitation functions a world trend in food safety
The separation of the food safety regulation and primary production facilitation
functions was a world trend among developed countries to allow the food safety
regulator to act more independently and to protect consumers' interest, the
Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Mrs Carrie Yau, said in the
Legislative Council today (January 6).
Speaking at a joint meeting of the Panel on Food Safety and Environmental
Hygiene and Panel on Environmental Affairs, Mrs Yau said the proposed
reorganisation of the food safety regulatory framework would provide better
delineation of responsibilities while pooling expertise and knowledge on food
safety under one institution.
"We will continue to study the views from the public, academics, professional
organisations, the mass media as well as the trade. We note there is a general
support for the Government's proposal but it would be prudent to work on
different building blocks where consensus is reached and start strengthening the
imported food side of business as a first step," she said.
Mrs Yau noted many overseas countries such as the United States, Canada, United
Kingdom, Finland, Republic of Ireland, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and
Thailand, had chosen either a complete separation of functions under different
ministries or had the functions carried out by different executive arms under
one ministry.
"We have benefited from the Legislative Council joint meeting this afternoon. We
note from the deputations and submissions that potential conflict of interests
may arise from the regulatory and facilitation roles to be performed by the same
government department. We shall bear this in mind when deciding the way forward
in enhancing our protection to the consumers and promoting the interests of the
production industry.
"One possibility is to phase-in the change by setting up a Centre for Food
Safety first since this seems to have general support.
"We shall address these concerns at our next meeting with legislators on January
17. We shall try every means to work out a revised proposal that hopefully could
gain the support of different stakeholders," she said.
Ends/Friday, January 6, 2006
Issued at HKT 18:58
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