Centre for Food Safety (CFS; ) is the

food safety Food safety (or food hygiene) is used as a scientific method/discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent food-borne illness. The occurrence of two or more cases of a similar illness resulting from t ...

authority of the

Hong Kong government The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, commonly known as the Hong Kong Government or HKSAR Government, refers to the Executive (government), executive authorities of Hong Kong Special administrative regions of China, ...

. Its mission is to ensure food is safe and fit for consumption through tripartite collaboration among the government, food trade, and consumers. The CFS was created in May 2006 under the

Food and Environmental Hygiene Department 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 ...

of the

Environment and Ecology Bureau Environment and Ecology Bureau (EEB; ) is one of the fifteen policy bureaux of the Government of Hong Kong. The agency was established on 1 July 2022. The current (since 1 July 2022) Secretary for Environment and Ecology is Tse Chin-wan. This ...

History

Plans to form a separate agency to specifically tackle food safety were proposed in 2005, following multiple food safety incidents including an outbreak of

Streptococcus suis ''Streptococcus suis'' is a peanut-shaped, Gram-positive bacterium, and an important pathogen of pigs. Endemic in nearly all countries with an extensive pig industry, ''S. suis'' is also a zoonotic disease, capable of transmission to humans from ...

and freshwater fish contaminated with

malachite green Malachite green is an organic compound that is used as a dyestuff and controversially as an antimicrobial in aquaculture. Malachite green is traditionally used as a dye for materials such as silk, leather, and paper. Despite its name the dye is ...

. At its initial conception, the centre was expected to take a similar structure as the

Centre for Health Protection The Centre for Health Protection is an agency under the Department of Health in Hong Kong responsible for disease prevention and control. CHP plays the same role and function as the Centers for Disease Control in the United States, and the E ...

, and bring together experts from various fields to tackle food safety issues. A proposal for the centre was rejected by the Legislative Council on 18 January 2006, citing concerns of marginalising veterinarians and lacking clarity. Within the first months after the centre is set up, legislators complained that the centre had been doing too little to effective control food safety in Hong Kong.

Logo

The department's orange colour is adopted in the Centre logo plus the green colour representing "safety and hope". The letters 'C', 'F' and 'S' are abbreviation for Centre for Food Safety.

References

External links

Official websiteFood and Health Bureau websiteImmuno PCR
2006 establishments in Hong Kong Government agencies established in 2006 Hong Kong government departments and agencies Food safety organizations Medical and health organisations based in Hong Kong Regulation in China {{HongKong-gov-stub