Bureau denies plan to cancel toxic pesticide ban is 'health risk'
'No risk to public' in exempting pesticides from food safety law after regulator's advice
A proposal to exclude three pesticides from a new food safety law was made following a recommendation from a mainland regulator, the Food and Health Bureau has admitted.
But the practices of other countries were also taken into account and the proposal was not intended to accommodate mainland Chinese standards only, the bureau said.
It dismissed suggestions that the move posed a health risk to Hongkongers.
"It is true that the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has recommended us to cancel [limits on] the three substances," deputy secretary Philip Chan Kwan-yee told the Legislative Council food and health panel yesterday.
"But other stakeholders from places such as Canada and the United States have also given us comments. The amendment was not made to accommodate the requirements of one place; it is to internationalise our standards."
The new food safety law, Pesticide Residues in Food Regulation, was passed in Legco in June 2012, and the bureau is making amendments to the regulations before it takes effect in August.