Hong Kong needs to overhaul its food regulatory system, critics said yesterday, while expressing doubts that a planned cross-border notification mechanism could minimise food scares involving mainland products.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department was set up in 2000, mainly in response to the bird flu outbreak that brought the poultry industry to its knees in 1997.
The latest food scares involving tainted eel and the pig-borne Streptococcus suis showed that the department was unable to cope, said Fred Li Wah-ming, the chairman of the Legco panel on food safety and environmental hygiene.
'Live fish are not classified as food. They are only regulated during random sampling at seafood stalls and market stalls,' said Mr Li. 'We have to develop the whole system.'
Mr Li said he hoped the cross-border mechanism on food incidents could be implemented as soon as possible.
'Last time there was an eel recall they did not inform us [immediately]. They informed Macau, but not us,' Mr Li said.
