Focus Group Meetings on the Use of Nutrition Labels

The meetings were held on 11, 13 (two sessions), 18 November and 13 December to understand the knowledge and practice on reading nutrition labels among different groups of CLG members (including homemakers, males aged between 50 and 64, students, the elderly and others). Views on publicity channels and educational activities on nutrition labelling were also collected.

Focus Group Meeting on Publicity and Education on Nutrition Labelling (I) — Shopping Guide, Food Safety Day 2009 and Short Radio Programme

The meeting was held on 22 April to seek CLG members' views on the content and arrangements of various publicity and educational resources and activities on nutrition labelling.

Food Safety Day 2009 and Short Radio Programme

The CFS organises a Food Safety Day annually to disseminate food safety messages through variety show, game booths and exhibition. The main theme of the next Food Safety Day 2009 was nutrition labelling. To tie in with the Nutrition Labelling Publicity and Education Campaign, CFS also planned to spread the relevant information through radio programmes.

Online Interactive Tool

An online interactive tool was being prepared which could provide two practical functions: (i) compare the energy and nutritional contents of prepackaged food and (ii) calculate individual energy and nutritional intakes and the contribution to recommended daily intake/limits.

Online Interactive Tool on Nutrition Labelling

In response to members' suggestions, we made the following changes to the online interactive tool:

• The number of prepackaged foods to be entered was increased from two to five for comparison on their energy and nutritional contents.
• A new function to enter personal energy and nutrients intake goals was provided to cater for the needs of different people.

Focus Group Meeting on the Effectiveness of Food Safety Message Dissemination through Food Safety Bulletin

The meeting was held on 29 September to seek CLG members' views on the content and distribution channel of the Food Safety Bulletin (Bulletin) published quarterly by the Centre for Food Safety (CFS).

Focus Group Meeting on the Release of Test Results on Food

The meeting was held on 16 December to collect members' opinion on the content and format of presenting test results in food surveillance, risk assessment studies and food safety incidents. Members' suggestions on the channels of disseminating the test results to the general public were also sought.