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 safety and hygiene standards prescribed by the departments concerned.
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 licence system. Premises that satisfy 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 2007, the Department received 2,922 applications for provisional food business licences and 1,976 were issued. An 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 3,058 (including
1,619 for restaurant licences). In addition, there were 1,209 applications for restricted food permits,
1,098 applications for places of public entertainment licences, and 37 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 one cinema, 11 entertainment machine centres, one commercial bathhouse and 30 private swimming pools.
Liquor Licences
To sell liquor for consumption on the premises, 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 a week to deal with contested cases. In exercising its statutory powers, the Board regularly reviews the policy governing the issue of liquor licences and the control of licensed premises.
During the year, 854 applications for liquor and club liquor licences were received and 838 new licences were granted. Some 4,921 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 604 liquor licence applicants and licensees.
Inspections
Health inspectors perform regular inspections to ensure that licensed food premises comply with the licensing requirements and conditions as well as hygiene standards prescribed under the law. In addition to routine inspections, supervisory inspections are conducted by senior officers. 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 to regulate licensed food premises. Inspection frequencies vary according to the risk and hygiene standards of licensed food premises. Inspections will focus on 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 licence suspension or cancellation if they breach the law persistently. Under the Warning Letter System, licences may be cancelled as a result of repeated breaches of licensing requirements or conditions.
The Department also cracks down on unlicensed food businesses by taking out prosecution and, for persistent offenders, by summary arrest.
The Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance provides an effective mechanism to close food premises which pose an immediate health hazard to the public. In 2007, the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene exercised his statutory power and issued seven closure orders against premises where pathogenic Vibrio cholerae was identified in fish tank water sample, and where there were outbreaks of food poisoning.
Statistics on Enforcement Actions Against Licensed and Unlicensed Food Premises in 2007
| Licensed food premises | |
|---|---|
| No. of licensed food premises | 19,577 |
| No. of inspections | 205,549 |
| No. of prosecutions | 4,204 |
| No. of licence suspensions | 160 |
| No. of licence cancellations | 6 |
| Unlicensed food premises | |
| No. of prosecutions | 2,065 |
| Closure of food premises | |
| No. of Closure Orders granted | 7 |
Hygiene Manager / Hygiene Supervisor Scheme
The Hygiene Manager (HM) and Hygiene Supervisor (HS) Scheme seeks 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 institutions 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 2007, it has provided a total of 1,195 courses for 53,813 HSs, while 18,432 HMs were trained by academic institutions and training centres.
Slaughterhouses
Hong Kong's fresh meat (beef, pork and mutton) is supplied by three 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.
To protect public health, all food animals admitted to licensed slaughterhouses are subject to both ante-mortem and post-mortem inspections. These ensure that meat is fit for human consumption before being released for sale in the markets. During the year, the Department mounted 305 raids and surveillance operations on suspected illegal slaughterhouses. Some 7,761 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, three fresh provision shop licences were cancelled and two market stall tenancies terminated.