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 herbal tea, cut fruit, sushi and sashimi, oysters and meat to be eaten raw, food sold from vending machines, and operating Karaoke Establishments.
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 Licences
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 time the licensee completes all outstanding requirements for the issue of a full licence.
In 2003, 2,190 applications for provisional food business licences were received, and 1,567 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 2,437 applications for food business licences (including 1,167 for restaurant licences), 864 applications for restricted food permits, 890 applications for places of public entertainment licences, and 60 applications for other trade licences. Licence applications are handled by three licensing offices located on Hong Kong Island, in Kowloon and the New Territories.
The Department also licensed two cinemas, eight entertainment machine centres, one auditoria/hall, six commercial bathhouses, 49 private swimming pools and six 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 provides 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, 711 applications for liquor and club liquor licences were received and 618 new licences were granted. A total of 4,297 liquor and club liquor licences was 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 2003, 11 such sessions were organised for 554 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.
Since 10 February 2003, the Department has adopted the new risk-based inspection system. The 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.
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 Legislative Council passed amending legislation 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. The new legislation came into operation from 14 February 2003.
The Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene has exercised his power under the new legislation to issue closure orders against three premises where Vibrio cholerae was identified in the fish tank water samples taken for examination from these premises in the second half of the year. In addition, the Department has successfully obtained four closure orders granted by the court for closure of unlicensed food premises.
Statistics on enforcement actions against licensed and unlicensed food premises in 2003
| Licensed food premises | |
|---|---|
| No. of licensed food premises | 18,788 |
| No. of inspections | 264,585 |
| No. of prosecutions | 3,897 |
| No. of licence suspensions | 188 |
| No. of licence cancellations | 3 |
| Unlicensed food premises | |
| No. of unlicensed food premises under application for licence | 819 * |
| No. of unlicensed food premises not under application for licence | 229 # |
| No. of inspections | 40,381 |
| No. of prosecutions | 1,493 |
| Summary arrests - | |
| No. of raids carried out | 80 |
| No. of persons arrested | 140 |
| No. of Prohibition Orders granted during the period | 14 |
| No. of Closure Orders granted during the period | 4 |
| * Total No. of unlicensed food premises under application for licence during the period from 1.1.2003 to 31.12.2003. | |
| # Total No. of unlicensed food premises NOT under application for licence during the period from 1.1.2003 to 31.12.2003. | |
The Department also mounted 16 operations against unlicensed meat roasting factories in 2003, resulting in one person being prosecuted.
Hygiene Manager / Hygiene Supervisor Scheme
The Department is aiming to introduce a Hygiene Manager (HM) and Hygiene Supervisor (HS) Scheme in late 2004 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 2003, the Department had conducted 531 Hygiene Supervisor courses with a total of 19,380 participants. About 3,199 Hygiene Managers have been trained by the institutions.
Slaughterhouses
Hong Kong's fresh meat (i.e. beef, pork and mutton) is supplied by three privately operated slaughterhouses - the Sheung Shui Slaughterhouse, Tsuen Wan Slaughterhouse and Cheung Chau Slaughterhouse. Apart from monitoring the operations of the licensed slaughterhouses to ensure the required hygiene and environmental standards are met, the Department combats illegal slaughtering activities.
For the protection of 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 it is released for sale at the markets. During the year, staff mounted 454 raids on illegal slaughterhouses, resulting in six prosecutions and the seizure of 1,800 kilograms of pork and pig carcasses. They also conducted 21,138 surprise visits to fresh provision shops and meat stalls to check if meat from unapproved sources was being sold. The action resulted in nine prosecutions.
The Department also keeps a close watch over the irregularity of selling imported chilled meat as fresh meat.