Readers' Corner

New Internet Initiatives

Centre for Food Safety Mobile Website (http://m.cfs.gov.hk)

With the increasing popularity of smartphones, more and more Hong Kong people are using smartphones for internet browsing. In view of this, the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) has launched a mobile website with a smartphone-friendly screen size to facilitate internet browsing with smartphones. The mobile website contains:

1. Latest Food Alert
2. Latest activities of the CFS
3. Latest information of the CFS

Plant Hormones

A Brief of the Thirty-fourth Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission

The thirty-fourth session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex) was held from 4 to 9 July 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland. The session was attended by 625 delegates from 145 member countries, including the Chinese delegation comprising 22 Mainland representatives and 2 Hong Kong representatives, 1 member organisation and 34 international governmental organisations (including the United Nations agencies) and non-governmental organisations. Codex, established jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Health Organisation of the United Nations, is an intergovernmental body that coordinates and establishes food safety standards at the international level. Food safety standards set by Codex are supported by comprehensive scientific studies, and represent the international consensus relating to food safety standards. As such, adoption of standards set by Codex can both protect public health and facilitate food trading.

In this session, scores of new or revised Codex standards or related texts were adopted and a series of proposals on work related to food safety and standards were approved. For food safety standards, they included the adoption and revocation of the maximum levels of more than ten food additives in various foods, about 400 maximum residue levels (MRLs) of scores of pesticides and 12 MRLs of 2 veterinary drugs, etc. With regard to the guidelines and Code of Practice (CoP) concerning food safety, the Commission adopted the CoP for the Prevention and Reduction of Ethyl Carbamate Contamination in Stone Fruit Distillates, the Guidelines for the Control of Campylobacter and Salmonella spp. in Chicken Meat, and the Revision of the Recommended International Code of Hygiene Practice for Collecting, Processing and Marketing of Natural Mineral Waters.

The full report of this session is available on the Codex website:
ftp://ftp.fao.org/codex/Reports_2011/REP11_CACe.pdf

News on New Dishes

Safety Tips on Preparing a Refreshing and Tasty Dish – Poached Whole Tomato Stuffed with Mixed Mushrooms

Dining out often means more meat, less vegetables and oilier food. But people are health-conscious nowadays. Those who choose diets that offer lower levels of fat, salt and sugar and contain less meat and more vegetables are on the increase. In this issue, we are honoured to have invited Chef Pun, Executive Chef of Dragon King Restaurant, to demonstrate how to prepare a healthy and tasty dish – Poached Whole Tomato Stuffed with Mixed Mushrooms. This dish, with tomatoes, Chinese spinach and mushrooms as the main ingredients and coated in a thick chicken soup, is really a happy and refreshing choice for the healthy eaters.

Poached Whole Tomato Stuffed with Mixed Mushrooms – ready to serve

Tips from the Executive Chef:

1. To make a good dish, it is essential to use fresh ingredients. As vegetables are perishable, the Restaurant will place orders with suppliers according to the estimated consumption of that day. Vegetables and mushrooms will be delivered to the Restaurant one to two days before cooking to ensure freshness, and upon delivery, they will be inspected thoroughly to eliminate any damaged or bruised vegetables as well as any dampened, spotted, stinky or slimy mushrooms.
2. After inspection, vegetables will be washed under running water to remove any sand or grit from the surface, then stored at 4°C in a refrigerator. Vegetables will be stored on the "first-in-first-out" principle to ensure freshness, and they will be washed again before cooking.
3. The Restaurant has established a supervisory system to ensure food and environment cleanliness. Staff are also provided with on-the-job hygiene training, various codes of hygiene and operational guidelines to make sure that they understand and comply with these codes and guidelines.
4. The principle of separating raw and cooked foods, including storing raw and cooked foods in separate refrigerators and handling raw and cooked foods with different and clearly labelled cutting boards, knives and other utensils, has been strictly observed to avoid cross-contamination.
5. To ensure that food is thoroughly cooked, directives for cooking time and temperature for all dishes have been provided.
6. Refrigerator temperatures are checked and recorded by staff at fixed time intervals every day. Regular maintenance of refrigerators is also carried out to ensure that they are in good working order.

Food Safety Plan Corner

Poached Whole Tomato Stuffed with Mixed Mushrooms

Ingredients

Tomatoes, Chinese spinach, mixed mushrooms, Shimeji mushrooms, yellow fungi and elm fungi

Seasoning

Salt, oyster sauce, chicken powder and chicken soup

Step

1. Rinse and peel the tomatoes. Remove the cores. Add chicken soup and steam for 4 minutes.
2. Rinse and blanch the Chinese spinach until cooked. Dish up.
3. Bring mixed mushrooms, Shimeji mushrooms, yellow fungi and elm fungi to a quick boil. Put them in wok and add salt, oyster sauce and chicken powder. Stir-fry until cooked.
4. Place the tomatoes on the Chinese spinach. Stuff mixed mushrooms, Shimeji mushrooms, yellow fungi and elm fungi into the tomatoes. Pour heated chicken soup on top.

Production Process

Briefing of Activities

(I) Public Talks of Centre for Food Safety

Since the Nutrition Labelling Scheme came into force on 1 July 2010, nutrition label "1+7" has been available on all applicable prepackaged foods and nutrition claims need to meet specified conditions. In order to facilitate consumers' understanding of nutrition labelling and promote its use in making informed food choices, the CFS organised, in collaboration with the Caritas Social Work Services Division, a public talk on 25 June. Seminar was held at the Food Expo at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on 12 August to introduce "Multi-perspectives on Nutrition Labelling".

To learn more about nutrition labels, you may visit the CFS website: www.nutritionlabel.gov.hk

(II) "Live it, Use it" Nutrition Labelling Promotion Award Scheme 2011/12

Enrolments are now invited for the "Live it, Use it" Nutrition Labelling Promotion Award Scheme 2011/12, which is jointly organised by the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) and the Education Bureau, and supported by the Committee on Home-School Co-operation. The Award Scheme aims at encouraging students to actively promote nutrition labelling for developing and consolidating healthy eating habits through the use of nutrition information. The Award Scheme can be incorporated into the Healthy School Policy, health-related co-curricular activities, and learning elements under life-wide learning or Other Learning Experiences. Participating students can fully utilise their potential in planning and implementing promotional activities.

Participants should enrol as a school team with guidance from their teachers. A school may form more than one team. Each team should consist of not more than ten core members and enrol into either Junior Group (F.1 to F.3) or Senior Group (F.4 or above).

Enrolment form can be downloaded from the CFS website. Completed forms can be submitted to the Risk Communication Section of the CFS. Enrolled teams will receive a resource package together with mentoring provided by the CFS and/or her professional partners. For further information, please visit www.nutritionlabel.gov.hk.

Food Safety Q&A

Question:

What are pesticides? Why do we need to use pesticides? Will it be a problem if we consume food that has been sprayed with pesticides? What are the differences between pesticides and conventional contaminants? Is there any control over food contaminants in Hong Kong?

Answer:

Pesticides are substances used to prevent, destroy, repel or mitigate weeds, unwanted insects, fungi, rodents and other pests. There are various types of pesticides, the commonly used ones include insecticides, herbicides, insect and plant growth regulators, etc. The use of pesticides has been recognised by the agricultural industry as a way to protect crops from infestation by pests or weeds, thus enhancing and stabilising the crop yield, keeping the nutritional integrity of food and facilitating storage to assure year-round food supplies. Notwithstanding the beneficial effects, the use of pesticides and its resulting residues require careful monitoring and regulation. Small amount of pesticide residues may remain in the crops or foods of animal origin even when pesticides are applied correctly according to the instructions. The potential adverse health effects of pesticides depend on the nature of the pesticides used, as well as the amount and duration of exposure. However, if the pesticide is properly used, the residual level in food will usually be very low and normal consumption of the food is unlikely to pose adverse health effects. For some pesticides that have been banned or are no longer in use (e.g. DDT, lindane), they may persist in the environment for a long time and enter the food chain at various levels of the ecosystem. Therefore, traces of their residues and metabolites may be present in food as environmental contaminants. As such, if a small amount of these pesticide residues is detected in food, it does not necessarily reflect that they are still being used in agriculture. To ensure that food on sale in the market is safe and fit for human consumption, the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) adopts a scientific approach in monitoring food contaminants, including pesticide residues, at import, wholesale and retail levels through the routine Food Surveillance Programme.

Truth against Fallacy

Are "natural" food additives safer than synthetic ones?

No. It is a common misconception that natural food additives are safer than synthetic ones. The truth is that our body cannot tell one from the other. Take citric acid – an antioxidant used in food – as an example, whether it is extracted from lemons or formulated in a laboratory makes no difference to our body.

Some food naturally contains substances that can be used as additives. Carotene in carrots, for instance, can serve as a food colour additive. The level of food additives in food is subject to strict safety standards laid down by international food safety authorities. Under the internationally recognised safety standard, the level of carotene permitted in a food as an additive may even be lower than the level of carotene naturally present in a carrot.

Nowadays, we attach great importance to food safety. Consumers, relevant Government departments, food manufacturers and scientists are all concerned about the use of additives in food available in the market – the type of additives added, the reasons for adding them and if they are safe for consumption. In fact, the answers to all these questions can be found on the labels affixed on the food packages. The majority of prepackaged food items available in Hong Kong bear labels listing the ingredients (including food additives) in descending order of their proportions, enabling consumers to be better informed about the food.

Brain Gym

‘True ( ) or False ( )' Questions