Hong Kong needs to bring its ability to assess health risks in food more into line with western countries, according to a consultant for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) quoted by the Hong Kong based Standard newspaper.
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“We are a little bit behind,” said Dr Ho Yuk-yin, consultant for the department’s community medicine program. “We are trying to catch up.”
The FEHD announced that it will conduct a territory-wide survey to poll dietary and food consumption habits. The year-long survey of people aged 20 to 84 will start on March 10.
The survey will fill in gaps in Hong Kong’s knowledge of general chemical risks in food sold everywhere, said Ho.
“Before, we did a bit of guessing or used other people’s data,” said Ho. That limited insight into actual food safety concerns and was not scientific enough to formulate policies for food and health protection, he said.
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By GlobalDataExplaining the FEHD survey, Ho said: “Once you’ve got this data set, you can address any problems. Combining [knowledge about chemicals in foods] with food consumption data, you can assess the dietary exposure of any chemical of interest,” he said.
Ho said Hong Kong lacked an adequate and exact risk-assessment database that would allow easier handling of problems with the territory’s food.
The Chinese University of Hong Kong has been commissioned to conduct the survey. The results will be presented in 2006.
