The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department is the licensing authority for food businesses and certain trades in Hong Kong.
Licensing
Restaurants, food factories, fresh provision shops, bakeries, factory canteens, siu mei and lo mei shops, frozen confection factories, milk factories and cold stores are all required to obtain licences from the Department. It also issues permits for the sale of restricted foods such as frozen confections, milk, non-bottled drinks, Chinese herb tea, cut fruit, sushi and sashimi, oysters and meat to be eaten raw, and food sold from vending machines.
Licences are only issued to food premises if they conform to the prescribed safety and hygiene standards laid down by law.
Trade licences are required for operating places of public entertainment, such as theatres, cinemas and entertainment machine centres, as well as commercial bathhouses, private swimming pools, funeral parlours, undertakers, slaughterhouses and offensive trades.
Provisional Licence
To facilitate the setting up of food businesses, the Department operates a provisional licensing system. Under this system, a provisional food business licence is issued to premises that have satisfied all essential health, building and fire safety requirements. A provisional licence is valid for six months, during which the licensee completes all outstanding requirements for the issue of a full licence.
In 2002, 2,128 applications for provisional food business licences were received, and 1,458 were issued. Since 2001, a licence applicant may obtain a provisional licence over the counter from the Provisional Food Business Licences Issue Office.
Licences Processed and Issued
During the year, the Department received and processed 2,502 applications for food business licences (including 1,110 for restaurant licences), 1,116 applications for restricted food permits, 1,154 applications for places of public entertainment licences, and 74 applications for other trade licences. Licence applications are handled by three licensing offices located on Hong Kong Island, in Kowloon and in the New Territories.
The Department also licensed two cinemas, 21 entertainment machine centres, eight commercial bathhouses, 40 private swimming pools and seven undertakers.
Liquor Licensing
To sell liquor, a licence is required from the Liquor Licensing Board, an independent statutory body established on January 1, 2000.
Staff from the Department provide executive and secretarial support to the Board, which normally meets twice every two weeks to deal with contested cases. The Board regularly reviews the policy governing the issue of licences and the control of licensed premises in exercising its powers under the law.
The Board has delegated its power of approving non-contested applications for new issues, renewals, transfers and amendments to the Director, Deputy Director (Environmental Hygiene), Assistant Directors (Operations) of the Department and the Secretary of the Board.
During the year, 655 applications for liquor and club liquor licences were received and 612 new licences were granted. A total of 4,596 liquor and club liquor licences were renewed.
The Board regularly arranges seminars on liquor licensing to enable applicants and licensees to update their knowledge of the legal liabilities and responsibilities for the proper management of their premises. In 2002, 12 such sessions were organised for 470 liquor licence applicants and licensees.
Inspections
To ensure that licensed food premises comply with the requirements, conditions and hygiene standards prescribed under the law, health inspectors perform regular inspections and checks. In addition to routine inspections, surprise inspections and formal inspections are conducted. Premises issued with trade licences, such as cinemas, commercial bathhouses and private swimming pools, are also regularly checked.
By late 2002, licensed food premises had been classified into three risk types - Type I, II and III (representing low, medium and high risk) for inspection at different frequencies. This risk-based inspection system aims to direct inspection resources towards those food premises with higher risks and with lower hygiene standards. Moreover, inspections will be refocused to incorporate more food safety checks and health education on site, in addition to general sanitation checks. As a result, the inspection time of a licensed food premises may be extended where necessary. All licensees were informed in December 2002 of the arrangements of this risk-based inspection system and of its targeted implementation for February 2003.
Law Enforcement
Food business operators who breach public health laws face prosecution. Under a Demerit Points System, they face the risk of having their licences suspended or cancelled if they continue to violate the law or to breach repeatedly the licensing conditions. The Department also cracks down on unlicensed food businesses by taking out prosecutions and, for persistent offenders, by summary arrest and applying for closure of their premises.
To more effectively tackle unlicensed and unhygienic food businesses, the Legislature passed legislative amendments in early 2002 to provide for a quick and effective mechanism to close unlicensed food premises or where there was an immediate health hazard to the public.
Statistics on enforcement actions against licensed and unlicensed food premises in 2002
| Licensed food premises | |
|---|---|
| No. of licensed food premises | 18,259 |
| No. of inspections | 382,230 |
| No. of prosecutions | 3,675 |
| No. of licence suspensions | 236 |
| No. of licence cancellations | 2 |
| Unlicensed food premises | |
| No. of unlicensed food premises under application for licence | 1,049 |
| No. of unlicensed food premises not under application for licence | 153 |
| No. of inspections | 47,039 |
| No. of prosecutions | 2,306 |
| Summary arrests - | |
| No. of raids carried out | 583 |
| No. of persons arrested | 176 |
| No. of Prohibition Orders granted during the period | 126 |
| No. of Closure Orders granted during the period | 0 |
The Department also mounted 20 operations against unlicensed meat roasting factories in 2002, resulting in seven people being prosecuted and the seizure of 812 kilograms of roasted meat and 2,979 kilograms of raw food.
Hygiene Manager / Hygiene Supervisor Scheme
The Department is aiming to introduce a Hygiene Manager (HM) and Hygiene Supervisor (HS) Scheme in 2004/05 to strengthen food safety supervision in food premises. This will require food premises to appoint a Hygiene Manager or Supervisor as a condition for granting or renewing a licence. Since December 2001, the Department has been conducting free HS training courses for supervisory staff of licensed food premises. The training of Hygiene Managers will be the responsibility of licensees. The training duration of an HM takes about 16-20 hours depending on individual academic / vocational institutions offering the course, while that of an HS takes about six hours. By end 2002, the Department had conducted 291 Hygiene Supervisor courses with a total of 10,147 participants. About 2,400 Hygiene Managers had been trained by the institutions.
Slaughterhouses
In Hong Kong, fresh meat (i.e. beef, pork and mutton) is supplied by three privately operated slaughterhouses. They are located in Sheung Shui, Tsuen Wan and on Cheung Chau. The Department monitors and oversees the smooth operation of the licensed slaughterhouses and combats illegal slaughtering activities.
To fulfil the Department's role in protecting public health, all animals admitted to licensed slaughterhouses are subject to both ante-mortem and post-mortem inspections. This is to ensure meat is fit for human consumption before release for sale at markets. During the year, staff mounted 462 raids on illegal slaughterhouses, resulting in eight prosecutions and the seizure of 10,987 kilograms of pork, pig carcasses and live pigs. They also conducted 23,203 surprise visits to fresh provision shops and meat stalls to check if meat from unapproved sources was being sold. Their action resulted in eight prosecutions.
The Department also keeps a close watch over the irregularity of selling imported chilled meat as fresh meat.