Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food Carrie Yau says legislative proposals on further regulating egg imports will be ready in January, adding the idea of ordering suppliers to initiate food recalls is being explored.

Mrs Yau told radio audiences today Hong Kong consumes about 4 million eggs daily and imports about 1.7 billion eggs a year. Some eggs enter the Hong Kong market through other channels.

Apart from the State General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection & Quarantine's enhanced measures to ensure the safety of egg exports, Mrs Yau said Hong Kong must introduce laws, such as requiring local wholesalers and retailers to prove egg imports are from registered suppliers or farms and have health certificates.

Mrs Yau noted there is no specific legislation governing food recalls and suppliers usually carry them out voluntarily.

After making reference to overseas countries and considering different compulsory food-recall proposals and their impact on the trade, the bureau is exploring the possibility of initiating food recalls by ordering suppliers to remove foods which may pose a safety hazard to consumers from sale, distribution and consumption.

Registration system useful

Regarding malachite green and nitrofurans residues found in Mainland freshwater fish supplied to Hong Kong, Mrs Yau said the registered fish-farm system has helped authorities trace the origin of fish supply and keep the impact on unaffected fish farms to a minimum, adding fish may be contaminated during transportation.

Food Safety Centre Controller Dr Mak Sin-ping said a risk-assessment approach has been adopted in food surveillance. Currently, the focus of freshwater fish tests is malachite green and nitrofurans residues.

She said Hong Kong and the Mainland have agreed on the maximum level of malachite green allowed in freshwater fish. Mainland authorities will be notified of the test results for follow-up action.