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 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, food sold from vending machines, and for operating karaoke establishments in restaurants.
Licences are only issued to food premises which conform to the prescribed safety and hygiene standards laid down by law.
Trade licences are required for operating places of public entertainment, including 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. Premises that have satisfied all essential health, building and fire safety requirements are issued with a provisional licence valid for six months, during which the licensee has to complete all outstanding requirements for the issue of a full licence.
In 2006, the Department received 2,585 applications for provisional food business licences and 1,621 were issued. A licence applicant can obtain a provisional licence from the Licence Issuing Office within one working day if all the essential licensing requirements are met.
Licences Processed and Issued
Food business licence applications received and processed during the year totalled 2,808 (including
1,442 for restaurant licences). In addition, there were 901 applications for restricted food permits,
901 applications for places of public entertainment licences, and 34 applications for other trade licences. Licence applications are handled by three licensing offices located on Hong Kong Island, and in Kowloon and the New Territories.
The Department also licensed three cinemas, 10 entertainment machine centres, three commercial bathhouses, 32 private swimming pools and three undertakers.
Liquor Licensing
To sell liquor, a licence is required from the Liquor Licensing Board, an independent statutory body.
Staff from the Department provide executive and secretarial support to the Board, which normally meets once per week to deal with contested cases. In exercising its powers under the law, the Board regularly reviews the policy governing the issue of licences and the control of licensed premises.
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, 844 applications for liquor and club liquor licences were received and 763 new licences were granted. Some 4,710 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. During the year, 12 such sessions were organised for 622 liquor licence applicants and licensees.
Inspections
Health inspectors perform regular inspections and checks to ensure that licensed food premises comply with the requirements, conditions and hygiene standards prescribed under the law. 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.
The Department adopts a Risk-based Inspection System (RBIS) to inspect licensed food premises. This is a variable frequency inspection system, which aims to direct inspection resources towards licensed food premises with higher risks and with lower hygiene standards. Inspections will focus on on-site food safety checks and health education, in addition to general sanitation checks.
Law Enforcement
Food business operators who breach public health laws face prosecution. Under the Demerit Points System, they also bear the risk of having their licences suspended or cancelled if they continue to violate the law and, under the warning letter system, their licences will be cancelled on repeated breach of licensing requirements or 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. In 2006, one closure order was executed to close an unlicensed food premises.
The Public Health and Municipal Services (Amendment) Ordinance 2002 provides an effective mechanism to close food premises where there is an immediate health hazard to the public. In 2006, the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene exercised his power under the legislation to issue two closure orders against two premises due to outbreak of food poisoning.
Statistics on Enforcement Actions Against Licensed and Unlicensed Food Premises in 2006
| Licensed food premises | |
|---|---|
| No. of licensed food premises | 19,639 |
| No. of inspections | 200,896 |
| No. of prosecutions | 3,030 |
| No. of licence suspensions | 143 |
| No. of licence cancellations | 5 |
| Unlicensed food premises | |
| No. of prosecutions | 1,328 |
| Closure of food premises | |
| No. of Closure Orders granted | 3 |
Hygiene Manager / Hygiene Supervisor Scheme
The Hygiene Manager (HM) and Hygiene Supervisor (HS) Scheme is to strengthen food safety supervision in food premises. Under the scheme, all large food establishments and food establishments producing high-risk food are required to appoint an HM and an HS. All other food establishments are required to appoint either an HM or an HS. There are a number of local academic institutes and vocational training centres offering HM/HS courses that are recognised by the Department. The duration of an HM course is about 16-20 hours and that of an HS course is about six hours. The Department has been providing free HS training courses for supervisory staff of licensed food premises since December 2001. By the end of 2006, it had provided 1,085 courses for 48,146 HSs, while 15,570 HMs had been trained by the institutions and training centres.
Slaughterhouses
Hong Kong's fresh meat (beef, pork and mutton) is supplied by three privately operated slaughterhouses at Sheung Shui, Tsuen Wan and Cheung Chau. Apart from monitoring the operation of the licensed slaughterhouses to ensure the required hygiene and environmental standards are met, the Department also combats illegal slaughtering activities.
In protecting public health, all animals admitted to licensed slaughterhouses are subject to both ante-mortem and post-mortem inspections. This ensures that meat is fit for human consumption before being released for sale in the markets. During the year, staff mounted 308 raids and surveillance operations on illegal slaughterhouses. Two illegal slaughterhouses were successfully cracked down. Some 5,574 surprise visits to fresh provision shops and meat stalls were also made to prevent the sale of meat from non-approved sources.
The Department also keeps a close watch on the malpractice of selling imported chilled meat as fresh meat. As a result, the tenancies of two market stalls were terminated.