AL PLENARY | Gov’t to introduce new food safety regulations by 2017

The government is planning to draft further regulations on food safety by 2017, according to the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) president Alex Vong.
“We have administrative regulations [ensuring food safety.] And by 2017, we will introduce more regulations on this matter,” he told lawmakers yesterday.
Mr Vong also revealed that IACM is currently training 300 food inspection professionals.
Public concern over recent food safety scares has led lawmakers to criticize the authorities’ response to food sampling. Complaints about prawns injected with jelly being sold in Macau, and of contaminated Taiwanese Horng Ryen Jen sandwiches, have sparked further controversy.
Lawmaker Melinda Chan delivered a spoken enquiry calling on the government to improve its food safety measures. She urged Macau’s administration to improve its imported food sampling system, and regularly monitor potential risks to food safety.
Mr Vong assured lawmakers that, “currently Macau follows a set criteria for food inspection and analysis. We also follow [suggestions] from the Food Safety Committee while taking into consideration China’s food safety criteria as well.”
He recalled that since establishing a food safety center, IACM has drafted a list of food products that are banned from Macau’s supermarkets and shops.
Lawmakers have raised further criticism over the government’s handling of food safety scares. Legislator Kwan Tsui Hang queried as to why the government food safety departments appear to be so reluctant to receive potentially contaminated food samples for analysis. Lei Cheng I added that food safety mechanisms have failed to build Macau people’s trust in the system.
“Regarding the prawns case, a citizen bought prawns that contained an odd substance. If the government is unable to understand immediately why [it happened], taking on samples for testing… could ease people’s concerns. The government did not reveal their findings about the jelly,” she said.
The Secretary for Administration and Justice, Sonia Chan, reiterated that there is room for improvement when assessing food safety incidents, such as the one involving prawns. However, she recalled that inspections conducted in Macau revealed that no harmful substances were found in the prawns being sold here. CP