|
Food safety in Hong Kong remains at a high standard, according to analyses of food samples over the last six months by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), a Hong Kong government gazette said on Friday.
Revealing results of FEHD's food surveillance program for the first half of 2002, FEHD's Assistant Director for Food Surveillance and Control, Gloria Tam said that the department conducted microbiological and chemical testing on some 26,000 food samples during the period.
Microbiological testing covered both bacteria and viruses, while chemical testing included natural toxins, food additives and contaminants.
"It is encouraging to see that the overall failure rate was at a persistently low level of 0.4 percent. This compared favorably with the 0.7 and 0.5 percent for findings in the corresponding period in the last two years," Tam was quoted as saying.
Elaborating on the surveillance results, Tam pointed out that 8,700 samples were subject to microbiological analyses between January and June this year.
"Pathogens were found only in six samples, representing a record low failure rate of 0.1 percent. The failure rates stayed at 0.4 percent in the first half of both 2000 and 2001," she said.
(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2002)
|
