Health food is a subject that has generated considerable public discussion in the last few years. The recent proliferation of food products claiming specific beneficial health and sometimes medicinal effects has led to an increasing number of complaints from the unsuspecting consumers against misleading or exaggerated claims.

Before I go into the details of our existing regulatory framework, I would like to point out that there is no universally accepted definition of "health food" products.

Different terms such as dietary supplements, nutraceuticals, designed foods, functional foods and natural health products are used on different occasions to refer to similar products.

Among the different commodities claimed as health foods that are available on the market, some are similar to traditional food items in terms of their appearance and nature. Others are available in the form of pills, medicated powder, and so on; with some also containing Western or Chinese medicines.

While there is no generally agreed approach to regulate such products, we do have in place a legislative framework that will ensure the safety of all food products, depending on the types and ingredients of the products and safety and efficacy of drugs.

All foods, taken in appropriate amounts, promote health and can be described as "health foods". We have a comprehensive, responsive and science-based regulatory regime to ensure the safety of general food items and the so-called health food products.

As general food items, these are subject to regulation under the Public Health & Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap. 132), which prohibits the sale, and possession for the purpose of sale, of any food which is unfit for human consumption.

The main objective of this regulatory regime is to ensure that foods available on the market for human consumption are wholesome, hygienic, safe and properly labelled.

Section 61 of the ordinance provides that no person shall give any food sold by him or display with any food exposed for sale by him, a label, which falsely describes the food.

In addition, the Food & Drugs (Composition & Labelling) Regulations require that any prepackaged food for sale shall be marked and labelled in accordance with the provisions of the regulations.

The ingredients, durability, names and addresses of manufacturers or packers, as well as special conditions for storage or instruction for use should be listed.

Samples are taken at the import, wholesale and retail levels under our food surveillance programme for various laboratory testing and compliance checks against prescribed food standards and labelling requirements in order to ensure that they are fit for human consumption.

Education programmes are also organised in order to let the public know more about food safety. All these measures help to protect public health and ensure foods on the market are safe and fit for human consumption.

Medicinal effects should be registered

If a product contains medicines or claims to have medicinal effects, they are required to be registered as pharmaceutical products under the Pharmacy & Poisons Ordinance (Cap. 138).

The ordinance provides for the control of any product carrying a claim for the treatment, or prevention, of a specific disease, or symptom thereof as "pharmaceutical products".

The control takes the form of pre-marketing registration of individual products with the criteria of safety, efficacy and quality, labelling requirements, licensing of manufacturers and sellers, and restrictions on retail sale, which means the products can only be sold by pharmacists, or by a doctor's prescription only. The claims have to be substantiated.

The Chinese Medicine Ordinance (Cap. 549), which has come into effect recently, controls products containing Chinese medicines as active ingredients.

The licensing of manufacturers, importers and wholesalers commenced in May 2003 and the registration of proprietary Chinese medicines will begin by the end of 2003.

If a product contains Chinese medicines, it will be registered as proprietary Chinese medicines. The product also has to satisfy the requirements of safety, efficacy and quality.

We anticipate that, after the commencement of registration of proprietary Chinese medicines, the number of products properly categorised as health food products we shall not control as pharmaceutical products or as Chinese proprietary medicines should be very much reduced.

Improper self-medication prohibited

The Undesirable Medical Advertisements Ordinance (Cap. 231) prohibits the advertising of products or treatments for the prevention or treatment of diseases or conditions specified in the ordinance.

The purpose of the prohibition is to prevent improper self-medication by members of the public, thereby causing harm as a result of either the improper self-medication itself, or the delayed proper treatment they should received.

It is an offence for any person to publish, or cause to be published, any advertisement likely to lead to the use of any medicine, surgical appliance or treatment for treating or preventing any disease or condition specified in the ordinance.

We are aware of the need to constantly review the adequacy or otherwise of our current regulatory regime, in the light of new developments in the food industry, technological advances, rising expectation of our increasingly health conscious community and international best practices.

At the same time, it is only natural that consumers will wish to have more and accurate information on the food products that they purchase and have developed high expectations on the safety of such products.

Regulation not based on food categorisation

As mentioned earlier, our present regulatory framework is not based on a system of food categorisation. We do not have, nor do we consider it appropriate to introduce, a separate food category known as "health food" because invariably, all food items will have an impact or bearing on health.

What we have in Hong Kong is a conceptual framework that provides a comprehensive approach for management of all orally consumed products.

Under this framework, everything that is edible is either classifed as food or Chinese medicine or pharmaceutical product and there is no in-between. As regards pharmaceutical products, the definition is clearly laid down under the PPO and the CMO.

I read from the PPO. The "pharmaceutical product" and "medicine" mean any substance or mixture of substances manufactured, sold, supplied or offered for sale or supply for use in:

(a) the diagnosis, treatment, mitigation, alleviation or prevention of disease or any symptom thereof;

(b) the diagnosis, treatment, mitigation, alleviation of any abnormal physical or physiological state or any symptom thereof; or,

(c) altering, modifying, correcting or restoring any organic function, in human beings or in animals;

You will see from the definition of "pharmaceutical product" and "medicine", the definition is very board and many of the claims made currently in the markets of a lot of products in fact fall within the category of "pharmaceutical product" and "medicine" and should be registered as such.

For products carrying medicinal or treatment claims, they are regulated under the existing legislations to ensure their safety, quality and efficacy.

As regards food, we have in place a food surveillance programme based on the principle of risk assessment and management along the entire food supply chain, from farm to table, to ensure food safety; and a food labelling system to ensure that consumers have the information they need to be able to choose a safe and healthy diet.

In addition, there is a regulatory system under the UMAO to prohibit undesirable advertisements and to regulate claims irrespective of whether a product is regarded as food or drug.

Recently, there has been a surge in advertisements of products which make claims not caught under the UMAO, such as regulating blood pressure, etc.

In order to better safeguard the consumers from undesirable medicinal claims, we propose to include in the UMAO a new schedule of claims the advertisement of which would be prohibited.

Under this proposal, the Director of Health would have the power to amend the new schedule and to extend its coverage to cover other products and services as and when necessary having regard to the latest developments and for the protection of public health.

Public consultation on health claims launched

An expert committee comprising medical professionals, academics, as well as Consumer Council representatives has reviewed many of the claims being made in the market and, by adopting a risk assessment approach, has drawn up a list proposing nine types of prohibited health and medicinal claims.

Based on the recommendations of the expert committee, we launched a public consultation exercise on September 26 this year with the release of a consultation document on the proposed prohibition of a list of health and medicinal claims for orally consumed products.

We have also kept a close watch on new developments in food manufacturing methods and sales patterns. We note that there is an increasing demand for information about nutrients contained in food intended for human consumption so that consumers can make important choices that may have a bearing on their health conditions.

At the same time, we are aware that there is no uniformity in the way that nutrient information is presented on food labels, even when the food products are properly labelled.

Hence, consumers may find the information provided on the food labels misleading or difficult to comprehend.

Time ripe for nutrition labelling scheme

As part of the Government's ongoing efforts to protect and enhance public health, we believe that the time is now right for us to introduce a nutrition labelling scheme in Hong Kong with the aim of :

(1)  facilitating consumers to make healthy food choices;

(2)  encouraging food manufacturers to apply sound nutrition principles in the formulation of foods which would benefit public health; and,

(3)  regulating misleading or deceptive labels and claims on nutrients. We aim to issue a consultation document later this month, setting our proposals for a labelling scheme for nutrition information on all prepackaged food products.

There is no universal approach to the regulation of "health food" or health claims simply because all foods are health foods. Different places have adopted different regulations.

In fact, many of these are really mechanisms to regulate health foods which are in fact should be classified as either as drugs or as other products in the health industry such as Chinese medicines.

We believe that our initiative to regulate health and nutrient claims, together with our legislative framework for the regulation of general food items, Western and Chinese medicines, will be adequate in ensuring food safety and protecting the health of the public.

We certainly welcome discussion of Members of this Council to review whether this framework will be adequate to cover all the issues that they have been concerned. And in fact also I have seen from some other Honourable Members this Council may in fact consider the overall framework excessive.

So I think we will certainly very willing to discuss with Members of this Council as to what the right balance should be. We will continue to review our strategy in order that our system can cope with the new challenges.

We will also monitor international development closely, and establish a communication network with the trade, relevant overseas authorities and experts in the academic field with a view to enhancing our efforts to protect public health.

I am very grateful for the views expressed by Members today. Our existing regulatory system, in particular, the legislative controls on Chinese medicine products, plus the proposed additional measures set out above to regulate health and medicinal claims and food labels should meet many of Members' concerns.

We will also consider carefully the views from the members of the public in response to our consultation exercise and also from the trade before we make a firm decision on the way forward.

Whilst we are mindful of the cost implications to the food industry, it must always be remembered that our responsibility to protect public health is of paramount importance and should be the only overriding consideration. And it would also not in the public interest to compromise the integrity of our food and drugs regulatory regime.

(This is the speech by Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong on the motion of regulating health foods at the Legislative Council on November 5.)