The Food & Environmental Hygiene Department today released a practical guide laying down the general hygiene and food safety guidelines for the handling and delivery of meals.

Noting that food transactions through the web have become popular, and citizens are concerned about the hygiene conditions during the operation of food premises, online food delivery platforms and food deliverers, as well as food safety issues, the department has prepared the Practical Guide on Take-away Meal & Meal Delivery Services for food premises, online food platforms, food delivery agents and food deliverers to observe, it explained.

According to the practical guide, food for takeaways or delivery should be kept at the proper storage temperature as far as practicable before packing and during delivery, ie cold food at or below four degrees Celsius and hot food at above 60 degrees Celsius.

In the course of transportation, in case warming devices and refrigerating devices are not available for hot and cold food respectively, all food should be delivered within one hour after preparation. Suitable containers with fitted coverings or sealed packaging should be used to contain the food, while specific packaging design or tamper-evident devices should be used to prevent food tampering.

The storage compartments of the vehicles for food transportation and the delivery containers should be cleaned thoroughly before and after each dispatch and maintained in good condition.

Furthermore, food premises should prepare food in time for delivery rather than cooking too far in advance.

Online food platforms or delivery agents have to keep all delivery records for 60 days for tracking by the authorities in case of a foodborne outbreak or recall.

To better handle customer complaints, clear delineation of responsibilities between the food premises and the online food platform or delivery agent should also be set out in contractual agreements.

Food premises, online food platforms or delivery agents should provide adequate training to their food deliverers on basic food safety principles, the department added.