Information available in eight ethnic minority languages

This webpage in eight ethnic minority languages (i.e. Indonesian, Hindi, Nepali, Punjabi, Tagalog, Thai, Urdu and Vietnamese) contains only selected essential information of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD).  You can access the full content in the FEHD website in English, Chinese or Simplified Chinese.

Public Cleansing

FEHD provides public cleansing services, including street sweeping, household waste collection and other cleansing work, which are carried out by both in-house workforce and contractor cleansing teams.  The Department enforces against common cleanliness offences by issuing fixed penalty notices for depositing of litter or waste, unauthorised display of bills or posters, fouling of street by dog faeces, etc.  Designated FEHD officers are empowered to issue summonses against people committing cleanliness offences.  Apart from day-to-day enforcement action, anti-littering raids are conducted.

Pest Control

Pest control work, such as control of rodents, mosquitoes and other arthropod pests with public health importance, is carried out by both FEHD in-house and contractor pest control teams.  It aims at preventing and controlling the breeding of disease vectors. The methodology in pest control is subject to continuous review to ensure its effectiveness and efficacy in controlling the disease vectors.

Public Toilets

FEHD manages public toilets and aqua privies across the territory.  In order to ensure that public toilets are kept clean at all times, the Department has procured toilet attendant service at those with high daily patronage rate, located at tourist spots or receiving high concern of DC members / LegCo members / public media, etc. to provide immediate cleansing services, in addition to regular deep cleansing.

Public Markets

FEHD operates across the territory public markets and free standing cooked food markets, with stalls selling foodstuffs and a wide range of clothing and daily necessities.  The Department is responsible for their proper management and overall cleanliness and hygiene conditions.  Promotions are also conducted in selected markets to improve their business environment.

Hawker Management

FEHD is responsible for hawker management and control in Hong Kong.  Hawker Control Teams are deployed to control illegal hawking activities and to minimise nuisances created by street trading either by hawkers or by illegal extension of shops into the street area.

Cemeteries and Crematoria

FEHD serves the public by providing services on cremation and burial of body and skeletal remains.  The Department operates a number of crematoria, public cemeteries and public columbaria, and oversees the management of private cemeteries.

In addition to traditional burial services, FEHD promotes more environmentally-friendly and sustainable ways of handling cremains by encouraging the public to scatter ashes of their ascendants in Gardens of Remembrance managed by the Department or at designated Hong Kong waters.  FEHD launched the Green Burial Central Register in January 2019 to enable members of the public to register early their wish for green burial.

Licensing

FEHD is the licensing authority for food businesses (namely restaurants, food factories, bakeries, fresh provision shops, factory canteens, siu mei and lo mei shops, frozen confection factories, milk factories, cold stores, composite food shops and sale of restricted foods - including online sale of restricted foods), certain trades (namely places of public entertainment, commercial bathhouses, private swimming pools, funeral parlours, undertaker businesses, slaughterhouses and offensive trades) and karaoke establishments in licensed restaurants in Hong Kong.  The Department performs regular inspections to licensed and permitted premises to ensure that licence and permit holders comply with licensing requirements and conditions as well as the law.

Food Safety

The Centre for Food Safety of FEHD is responsible for ensuring that food available for human consumption is wholesome, hygienic, safe and properly labelled; safeguarding public health through testing and control of live food animals; and advising the public on risk management measures in relation to food and public health matters.  

Private Columbaria

The Private Columbaria Affairs Office of FEHD is responsible for handling matters relating to the implementation of the Private Columbaria Ordinance (Cap. 630) and providing executive support to the Private Columbaria Licensing Board. The Ordinance introduces a licensing scheme to regulate the operation of private columbaria.  Under the Ordinance, the operation of a private columbarium in Hong Kong must be covered by a specified instrument, viz a licence, an exemption or a temporary suspension of liability, and only private columbaria that have obtained a licence may sell or newly let out niches.

Environmental Nuisances

FEHD deals with environmental nuisances, including those caused by water seepage, dripping air-conditioners and accumulation of refuse, by issuing advisory letters and statutory Nuisance Notices to ensure abatement.

The Department has set up Joint Offices with the Buildings Department (BD) to provide a 'one-stop' service in dealing with reports of water seepage in buildings and identifying the source of the seepage through systematic investigation.  The working team of the Joint Office is with both legal authority and building survey expertise of BD, which helps speed up the investigation and identification of the sources of water seepage problems.