Secretary for Food & Health Dr York Chow stresses that local vegetables have an extremely high level of hygiene and safety under the existing source management and border monitoring system.

"There is only a very small chance of vegetables supplied to Hong Kong containing excessive amount of pesticides unless there are individuals who are bent on creating trouble," Dr Chow told lawmakers today.

While some vegetable traders suggest all imported vegetables be distributed through wholesale markets, Dr Chow said the proposal is based purely on commercial considerations, and unrelated to promoting food safety.

Food poisoning incidents caused by vegetables have been rare in the last decade, and no such cases have been reported since June 2005.

He noted under the free market policy, it is not proper for the Government to interfere with the distribution arrangements for imported vegetables, which should be determined by market demand. Distribution through direct sale or wholesale are both proper channels.

On the reported smuggling of chilled chicken and other foods into Hong Kong by mixing them with vegetables and applying bogus vegetable source labels, the Centre for Food Safety has followed up and asked Mainland authorities to investigate.

The centre has also enhanced joint inspections with the Customs & Excise Department of vegetable-carrying vehicles. Only two cases of vegetable-carrying vehicles transporting un-manifested goods were reported last year, so the situation of using vegetable-carrying vehicles to smuggle other food is not serious.