At the table: Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food Dr York Chow briefs Mainland and overseas food safety practitioners.

Hong Kong should not only be an international city on the financial and economic fronts, but also on food safety. This was the message from Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food Dr York Chow who opened the International Symposium on Food Safety today.

Dr Chow and Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food (Food & Environmental Hygiene) Carrie Yau met with Mainland and overseas speakers to exchange views on Hong Kong's food safety regime and to discuss international trends in food safety management and control.

To protect public health, he said Hong Kong pursues a vigorous food surveillance programme and tests more than 60,000 food samples a year.

"On the one hand, we need to increase consumer awareness of food safety, but on the other, we also need to be cautious in order not to make people overreact to food incidents," he said.

Food safety is assuming increasing importance worldwide, while food safety agencies, the food trade and the public are confronted with unprecedented changes in the food safety environment, he added.

Challenges faced by food regulators include, public demand for fast response to food incidents, finding ways and means to prevent or detect non-compliance in food quality or food hazards, and continuous reviewing and updating of food standards to keep abreast of international developments.