Legislators in Hong Kong Thursday urged the government to
strengthen measures on food safety as the fear of Sudan-dyed egg is
getting intense in the community.
According to Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, the test
result on the third batch of egg samples again found Sudan Red, an
industry used cancer-causing dye.
Last week, the mainland food authority found Sudan Red in duck
eggs produced by a food company, which made the Hong Kong food
authority alert about the local egg safety.
However, the Food Safety Center of Hong Kong said Monday that
the Sudan dye eggs have not been imported into Hong Kong and
therefore consumers should not worry about the egg problem, which
is contradictory to government's Wednesday announcement about Sudan
dye founded in eggs sold in local markets.
Hong Kong Acting Food Safety Center Controller Ho Yuk-yin said
Wednesday Sudan dyes have been detected in samples of hen and duck
eggs in Hong Kong. But he said since the Sudan level found in the
tainted samples is low, the center considers the carcinogenic risk
to the public low, adding there is no reason for undue concern.
Hong Kong's health chief York Chow Wednesday apologized for the
previous misleading information about Sudan red eggs and vowed to
strengthen food import scheme, especially the registration system
for egg importers and producers.
He added that all the egg imports from Hunan Province were
stopped until the health of the egg sources are confirmed. Besides,
the department will try to establish a legal framework to register
egg importers and make sure they have health certification for
their products before import them to Hong Kong.
Chow admitted that Hong Kong faces tremendous challenge in terms
of food safety, mainly because most of the food are being
imported.
Hong Kong's Permanent secretary for Food and Environmental
Hygiene Department Carrie Yau said Japanese technology of Quick
Response code tagged on the food package is useful for tracing food
resources. Hong Kong food authority may discuss on the feasibility
of establishing such a system to strengthen food control.
Meanwhile, turbot fish, a favorite of Hong Kong people, was
found containing malachite green, which is again urging the Hong
Kong food authority to work hard on measures of food safety.
(Xinhua News Agency November 24, 2006)