Press Releases
Transcript of SHWF on egg issues
Following is a transcript of the remarks (English portion) by the Secretary for
Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, at a stand-up media session at the lobby
of Murray Building, Central today (November 22):
Dr Chow: Just as the FEHD (Food and Environmental Hygiene Department) has
reported we've discovered Sudan red in certain duck eggs and chicken eggs in
Hong Kong, we have immediately communicated with the central authorities in
quarantine and control. They have decided that for the moment they will stop all
the imports from Hunan Province of eggs to Hong Kong until we are sure of the
source of the eggs and also where they come from in the province of Hunan. This
signifies that there is a need for improvement in communication for us, the
department, as well as the bureau. And for that, I apologise that yesterday I
was not able to give you the full picture of what's happening. Regarding the
control of importers of eggs, eggs used to be a relatively safe commodity in
term of food safety but now with the Sudan red incident we feel that there is a
need to strengthen the importers�� control. So, we are looking at the legal
framework which we can use to register our egg importers and make sure they have
health certification for their products before they import them to Hong Kong. It
will not just apply to the Mainland but also to any importers.
Reporter: What causes the communication breakdown between the department and the
bureau? Secondly, what should be done to remedy it?
Dr Chow: I think in this particular incident, it's a judgment whether it is an
important piece of information that the public should receive. In my opinion,
the Centre for Food Safety should inform the public as soon as there are any
suspected food safety hazards in our community. And in this particular case,
since everywhere including the Mainland is doing a lot of investigation on the
safety of eggs, and since the brand of the eggs had already been exposed, I
think it's just reasonable that we should inform the public the availability of
such eggs in Hong Kong.
Reporter: Is the Government's food safety monitoring mechanism is failing to
pick up problematic food from the Mainland, what would be done to improve the
situation?
Dr Chow: As I've explained earlier, I think we face tremendous challenge in Hong
Kong in term of food safety mainly because most of our food are being imported,
usually from many, many countries, there are more than a hundred countries if we
are talking about all categories of food. So, we need to prioritise which are
the food categories that we need to concentrate to monitor and also to control.
As far as egg is concerned, we feel that it is the time we also need to
investigate in the registration of importers so that we can be assured of the
source of the eggs and also in case of need, we can also trace back to where the
eggs come from.
(Please also refer to the
Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Issued at HKT 20:24
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