The Food Safety Ordinance (Cap. 612) will come into effect on August 1. It introduces a food-tracing mechanism to help the Government trace the source of food more effectively and take prompt action when dealing with food incidents.
The tracing mechanism would include a registration scheme for food importers and food distributors and a record-keeping requirement. There is a six-month grace period for the penalty of the registration requirement and the record-keeping requirement, which ends on January 31, 2012.
Food importers and distributors must register with the Director of Food & Environmental Hygiene, unless they have already registered or obtained a licence under other ordinances listed at Schedule 1 of the ordinance.
Those exempt from registration include marine fish farmers licensed with the Director of Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation; owners of Class III fishing vessels licensed with the Director of Marine; and registered stockholders of rice registered with the Director-General of Trade & Industry.
Food producers such as fish and vegetable farmers who sell their produce wholesale are also required to register, as are food manufacturers who sell their products by wholesale.
Registration opens tomorrow with the Food Importer/Distributor Registration & Import Licensing Office of the Centre for Food Safety by fax (2156 1015), in person, online (www.foodsafetyord.gov.hk) or by mail (Room 119, 1/F, 258 Queen's Road East, Wan Chai, Hong Kong). The registration fee for a three-year period is $195.
Under the ordinance, food traders must maintain records of food movements. Any one who imports, acquires and supplies by wholesale food in Hong Kong must keep transaction records of the business from which the food was obtained and the business to which it was supplied.
Importers, distributors and retailers must keep all food import and local acquisition records. They must also keep records of wholesale supply of food. Food retailers and caterers who supply food only to ultimate consumers by retail must keep acquisition records. Fishermen who capture local aquatic products and supply them in Hong Kong must keep capture records. Vegetable farmers who distribute their produce must also keep records of wholesale food supplies.
When the grace period expires on January 31, 2012, any one who does not register but carries on a food importation or distribution business may be liable to a maximum fine of $50,000 and six months in prison.
Those who do not keep required records are liable to a maximum fine of $10,000 and three months in prison.
Click
here for more information, or call the Food Importer/Distributor Registration & Import Licensing Office at 2156 3017 or 2156 3034.
