February 19, 2009

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government's laboratory will increase the number of chemical tests of food outsourced in the coming year, Secretary for Food and Health York Chow said Wednesday (Feb 18).

He added that microbiological tests will not be outsourced at this stage.

Chow told lawmakers the laboratory outsourced 22,000 chemical tests of food to private laboratories in 2008-09, equivalent to about 15 percent of the routine food tests in the fiscal year.

The resources saved will then be used to conduct method development for new tests, to provide testing services in support of new food legislation to enhance food safety, to conduct testing work involving litigation, and to assist in contract management.

He stated that Hong Kong maintains a high standard of food safety with the average satisfactory rate of food testing standing at 99 percent. The Centre for Food Safety tests 65,000 food samples yearly.

Chow said the centre reviews the sampling strategy regularly by taking into account the latest assessment on food safety. He added the inclusion of the testing of melamine into the routine surveillance program, intensifying the testing of sulphur dioxide added in beef due to recent increased detection of such irregularity, and conducting of surveys on other popular food items are some recent adjustments added to the strategy.