The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department had a busy year in 2011 to safeguard food safety and to deliver top quality environmental hygiene services to meet rising public expectation.
With a high state of readiness, the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) reacted quickly to a number of high profile food incidents. Following the Fukushima Nuclear Plant Incident on 12 March 2011, the CFS immediately started our surveillance of the radiation level of food imported from Japan. Upon detection of radiation levels exceeding safety levels in food samples, we made a food safety order prohibiting the import of certain food products from five prefectures in Japan. Over 60,000 samples of food products from Japan were tested during the year. With the timely action of CFS and the confidence of the public in our gate-keeping ability, Hong Kong's trade with Japan in food has more or less resumed to normal.
Likewise, the CFS responded promptly to public concern over food adulterated with plasticisers in Taiwan in May. Targeted surveillance of high-risk food was carried out and a total of six food safety orders were made to prohibit the import and supply of contaminated food products. After the incident, plasticisers have been included in our routine food surveillance programme.
To further safeguard food safety and public health, the Food Safety Ordinance was passed and came into effect on 1 August. The Ordinance introduces a registration scheme for food importers and food distributors and a record-keeping mechanism to help the CFS trace the source of food more effectively so that prompt actions can be taken to track down problematic sources during a food incident.
Risk assessment and risk communication are key components of our food safety strategy. In the year, the CFS released the findings on dioxins and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls under the first Hong Kong Total Diet Study. As a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Risk Analysis of Chemicals in Food, the CFS hosted a regional symposium entitled "From Food Incidents to Crisis Management" for food regulators, academics, international experts and traders to share experience and exchange views on the handling of food incidents. An iPhone App, "Nutrition Calculator", was also launched to help people make informed food choices by using nutrition information on prepackaged food. The App was extremely popular with 28,000 downloads and achieved top rankings in the "Health & Fitness" App category.
Hawker management posed another major challenge to the Department. Following the Fa Yuen Street fire in late November, stringent enforcement actions against non-compliances at fixed pitch hawker areas throughout the territory was carried out. The primary objective of such actions was to reduce fire safety risk posed to nearby buildings and residents. With the efforts of our Hawker Control Teams, the situation at these areas was significantly improved. A consultation exercise proposing the introduction of a mechanism for cancellation of hawker licences against repeated offenders was launched in December to seek the views of the public and stakeholders.
Upgrading cremation facilities and increasing the supply of public columbaria to meet increasing demand remain the Department's priority tasks. We have achieved good progress in the reprovisioning of Wo Hop Shek Crematorium and Cape Collinson Crematorium. A new columbarium with over 43,000 public niches and a Garden of Remembrance at Wo Hop Shek Cemetery are scheduled for completion in 2012.
With 24 sites identified for proposed columbarium development, we are working with other Government departments to study the feasibility of these sites and to make plans for these projects at sites found suitable for the purpose. The facilities at two of these sites, Diamond Hill Columbarium and Cheung Chau Cemetery, with some 2,500 new niches, are scheduled to be completed in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
The Internet Memorial Services (IMS) introduced in 2010 won the Best Public Service Application (Public Services Website) Silver Award under the Hong Kong Information and Communications Technology Awards 2011. To further improve the service, a mobile version was launched in the year to enable the public to pay tribute to the deceased via their mobile phones.
With more and more people choosing sustainable, environmentally friendly ways of handling cremated human ashes, we will enhance our free ferry service for scattering human ashes at sea from mid-January 2012 by using a bigger, more comfortable vessel.
To enhance our efforts in the prevention of dengue fever, two new initiatives were rolled out. The scope of the dengue vector surveillance programme was expanded to cover six more areas and we have introduced a rapid alert system to alert the neighbourhood of the need to take anti-mosquito measures promptly when the ovitrap indices are high.
On trade facilitation, a fast-track application process was put in place for live broadcasts in licensed cinemas. We are now working to introduce e-application services to food business licences and we aim to accept e-submission of applications for food business licences in 2013. The Department is embarking on a study of our long-term information technology strategy to put more of our public services and our internal work flow onto the internet to make our operations more efficient and customer friendly.
Looking ahead, we will continue our promotional and educational work to help the food trade comply with the Food Safety Ordinance when the grace period ends in February 2012. We would also be busy working out the licensing framework for private columbaria and develop longer term measures to improve the management of fixed hawker pitches to reduce the fire risks to nearby residents upon the end of the consultation exercises on these two important initiatives.
The above just provides a sketch of some of our achievements in 2011 and our plans for the year ahead. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues for their professionalism and commitment to providing first class services to the people of Hong Kong.
Clement Leung
Director
Food and Environmental Hygiene Department