The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) is a department of the Hong Kong Government, reporting to the Environment and Ecology Bureau. It is responsible for food hygiene and environmental hygiene. It replaced part of the role of the Urban Council and the Urban Services Department, and the Regional Council and the Regional Services Department.

History

Establishment

Pursuant to the passing of the Provision of Municipal Services (Reorganisation) Bill in 1999, the Provisional Regional and Urban Councils were dissolved along with the establishment of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department. According to the bill, changes to the structure for the delivery of municipal services should be adopted, with a new department dedicated for the environment and food assuming responsibility for all functions relating to food safety and environmental hygiene.

The motivations behind FEHD's establishment were mostly because of an institutional "system failure and negligence" to address repeated incidents in food handling and food-borne infectious diseases. As Dr. Leong Che-hung, former Legislative Council member noted, Hong Kong was on the verge of a cholera outbreak caused by filthy and unhygienic states of food manufacturers earlier in 1997, which was exacerbated by the Provisional Regional and Urban Councils' failure to oversee the actual operations after issuing licences, and the Department of Health's failure to step in in time. The incident exposed the institutional gap, which was clearly an operational gap of "lack of leadership in the overall improvement of food safety and environmental hygiene" and a policy gap of a "central body responsible for policy formulation of food safety and environmental hygiene".Official Record of Proceedings. Legislative Council. Retrieved 11 May 2022, from https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr99-00/chinese/counmtg/floor/991202ca.pdf To address these deficiencies, the Legislative Council passed the bill on 2 December 1999.

Development

Major structural reforms

Proposed reorganization of the FEHD In 2005, the then Chief Executive Donald Tsang addressed in his Policy Address to reorganise government departments and establish a new Food Safety, Inspection and Quarantine Department. The proposed reorganization was motivated by the food safety incidents of Mainland food supplies to Hong Kong including poultry, livestock, marine products and other non-staple food on a daily basis. The new department proposed to consolidate functions that were performed by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and the FEHD, including the monitoring and controlling of imported and local live food and non-food animals, poultry and birds, and the safety of vegetables, meat, seafood and food products.

However, the reorganisation was never implemented due to doubts and concerns by legislators as to the effectiveness of the new department in improving quality control of Mainland and foreign food supplies.

Establishment of the Centre for Food Safety

In 2006, the Centre for Food Safety was established under FEHD. The purpose of the agency is to ensure food is safe and fit for consumption through tripartite collaboration among the government, food trade, and consumers. Its establishment was first proposed in 2005, after a chain of food safety incidents of an outbreak of Streptococcus suis and freshwater fish contaminated with malachite green.

Response to public health crisis

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003

During the outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong, FEHD created about 3,000 temporary jobs for six months in response to the Government's package of relief measures to help the community. FEHD also introduced relief measures (e.g. rental waiver) to help market tenants during the outbreak. Further, FEHD was responsible for the provision of environmental hygiene services by providing cleansing and pest control services and disinfecting over 750 infected units during the outbreak.

H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus

In June 2008, faecal samples from poultry stalls in Sham Shui Po were tested positive of H5N1, more than 2,000 poultry were culled. Environmental samples from Luen Wo Hui Market, Yan Oi Market, Ap Lei Chau Market and Po On Road Market were tested positive of H5N1. The live poultry retail outlets underwent thorough cleaning and disinfection, all unsold poultry in the outlets were slaughtered. FEHD, together with the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, inspected all live poultry stalls and fresh provision shops selling live poultry before the resumption of sale.

Swine Influenza

FEHD conducted cleansing and disinfection operations in Metro Park Hotel in Wan Chai with almost 300 people under quarantine after the first confirmed imported case of human swine influenza. A funding of $99 million was approved by the Financial Committee of the Legislative Council to enhance the environmental hygiene of the community.

COVID-19 Pandemic in Hong Kong (2020 - present) FEHD has been conducting joint operations with the Police to take enforcement measures against parties like catering businesses and their customers, general public, etc. according to the anti-epidemic regulations, including the Prevention and Control of Disease (Requirements and Directions) (Business and Premises) Regulation (Cap. 599F), the Prevention and Control of Disease (Vaccine Pass) Regulation (Cap. 599L), etc.

Together with the Hong Kong Police Force, the Labour Department, relevant District Offices and the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, FEHD has conducted operations at public places during weekends and public holidays. FEHD has also carried out educational and publicity work, and reminded domestic helpers to comply with the COVID-19-related regulations, such as mask wearing and prohibition of gatherings in public places. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, FEHD has implemented measures at its public toilets, such as enhancing disinfection and cleansing services, and installing in phases sensor-type hand sanitisers and sensor-type toilet seat sanitisers. Anti-microbial coating was also applied to these toilets. FEHD also arranged cleaning service contractors to strengthen services provided in certain areas.

In April 2021, FEHD launched a webpage (https://www.fehd.gov.hk/english/events/covid19/vaccine_bubble_FP.html ) that provides relevant information and working tools to help catering premises and scheduled premises operators to understand the operation details during the pandemic.

In July 2022, due to the re-organization of the Government Secretariat, FEHD has changed to report to the Environment and Ecology Bureau.

Organization and operations

Organization

The FEHD consists of four branches including the Centre for Food Safety, the Environmental Hygiene Branch, the Administration & Development Branch and the Private Columbaria Affairs Office.

Duties

The FEHD is responsible for providing civil services, performing policy and enforcing law/regulations in the following areas.

Food Safety

The food safety authority under FEHD is the Centre for Food Safety. Its mission is to ensure that food is safe and fit for consumer's consumption through tripartite collaborations among the government, food trade, and consumers.

Licensing

Licensing is an environmental hygiene service provided by the Environmental Hygiene Branch. Licences that process through the FEHD include Restaurant (Full Licence), Restaurant (Provisional Licence), Liquor Licence, Non-restaurant Food Business Licence, Trade Licences, Outside Seating Accommodation (OSA) and Transfer of Food Licence.

Cleansing Services

Cleansing services provided by FEHD includes street cleansing, waste collection, gully cleansing conservancy services, poster removal, public refuse collection points, public toilets and public bathhouse vehicles.

Regarding street cleaning, FEHD and its cleansing contractors have a total workforce of about 13,500 to keep the city clean and provide cleansing services, including street sweeping and waste collection. Currently, FEHD is responsible for cleaning about 11,500 litter containers and about 1,900 dog excreta collection bins at least once a day.

Since public toilets are provided mainly at tourist spots and busy areas, FEHD pledges to ensure public toilets are kept clean at all times. FEHD employs attendants to station at those with high usage or located in tourist spots to provide immediate cleansing services, in addition to regular deep cleansing operations. To enhance the efficiency of cleaning, the FEHD actively explores the use of new technologies to improve the hygiene of public toilets.

Hawker control

The Hawker Control Team (HCT) is responsible for controlling hawking activities at all levels. Currently, FEHD deploys about 190 squads of Hawker Control Teams (124 squads in Hong Kong and Kowloon and 66 squads in the New Territories).

The teams are responsible for management of licensed hawkers. The teams work to ensure licensed hawkers operate their stalls in accordance with the conditions of their licences and laws and control street obstruction and nuisances caused by licensed hawkers. The teams are also vested with law-enforcement powers to inspect licensed fixed-pitch hawker stalls regularly and regulate the operation of itinerant hawkers whenever they are found hawking in the streets.

In the year of 2020, there were 3,334 convictions of unlicensed hawker or hawker-related offences in 2020. At the end of December 2020, the number of unlicensed hawkers was around 1,192.

Pest Control Pest control work includes work to control the rodents, mosquitoes and other arthropod pests which would risk public health. The work is carried out by the Pest Control Teams of FEHD.

Since FEHD's establishment, it has been conducting the Rodent Infestation Survey (RIS) regularly by setting baits in designated survey locations to monitor rodent infestation. The RIS is a useful indicator for the general situation of rodent infestation in individual survey locations and forms the basis for devising anti-rodent measures. The results also serve as reference for assessing the overall efficacy of rodent prevention and disinfestation work. The overall Rodent Infestation Rate for the first half of 2021 was 2.8%, falling under Level 1, indicating that rodent infestation in public areas in Hong Kong was not extensive during the survey period, and lower than the 3.6 per cent recorded for the second half of 2020.FEHD releases Rodent Infestation Rate for first half of 2021. Press Releases of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Retrieved 1 May 2022, fromhttps://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202109/21/P2021092100295.htm

According to the latest available documents, the annual budget for rodent control was HK$569 million in 2021, which recorded a rise of 28%. The number of rodents caught was 67,182, meaning the cost of catching each rodent was $10,880.

Operation of Public Facilities

The FEHD is responsible for operating facilities like markets, cooked food centres, public toilets, slaughterhouses, refuse collection points, cemeteries, crematoriums, and columbariums. FEHD also holds Lunar New Year Fairs in different districts annually.

Directorates

The FEHD is led by the Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene. Each branch is led by their respective Directorate. The Directorates are as follows:

Branch Directorate Title Food and Environmental Hygiene Department Ms YOUNG Bick-kwan, Irene, JP Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene Centre for Food Safety Dr WONG Wang, Christine Controller, Centre for Food Safety Environmental Hygiene Branch Mr YIU Kai-cheuk Deputy Director (Environmental Hygiene) Administration & Development Branch Mr LAW Kin-wai Deputy Director (Administration and Development) Private Columbaria Affairs Office Ms WONG Hoi-wan, Charmaine, JP Head, Private Columbaria Affairs Office

Policies and Operations