Hong Kong Food Safety Forum 2019 � “Technology, Innovation, and Food Safety” GS1 HK Collaborates with CFS on Food Trader Portal to Uplift Food Safety Level

HONG KONG, CHINA -�Media OutReach - 23 August
2019 – GS1 Hong Kong (GS1 HK) hosted the Food Safety Forum 2019 with the theme
“Technology, Innovation, and Food Safety” today, attracting more than 300 food
industry stakeholders to exchange ideas on how to capitalise on innovation and
technology to improve traceability and enhance food safety. Ms. Lau Lee Kwan, Vivian, JP, Director of Food & Environmental
Hygiene was invited as
the Guest of Honour, whereas Ms. Erica Ng, JP, Deputy Secretary for Food and
Health (Food)2 and Hon Peter Shiu Ka-fai, Legislative Councilor and
Deputy Chairman of Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene also
joined as Award Presenters. Representative from the Centre of Food Safety (CFS)
disclosed a Food Trader Portal will be launched late this year to strengthen
import control and facilitate food trade, which GS1 HK will provide support. The
Award Presentation Ceremony for Quality Food Traceability Scheme 2019 was
also held, where 20 companies were recognized for demonstrating excellence in
food safety and traceability practices.

(From left to right) Ms. Erica Ng, Deputy Secretary for Food and Health (Food)2, Ms. Anna Lin, Chief Executive of GS1 Hong Kong, Ms. Vivian Lau, Director of Food & Environmental Hygiene, Hon. Peter Shiu, Legislative Councilor and Deputy Chairman of Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene and Ms. May Chung, HK Food & Beverage Industry Advisory Board of GS1 HK and General Manager of Nestlé Hong Kong Limited, attended today’s Food Safety Forum 2019 as the honourable guests. 

95% of the total food supply in Hong
Kong is imported from all over the world. The growing complexity of the global
food supply chain has only been adding up to the risk for food safety in Hong
Kong. Technology thus plays a key role in promoting food safety. Ms. Vivian Lau
said in her opening speech, “The Food and Environmental Hygiene and the Centre
for Food Safety are committed to embracing technology and innovation to improve
public service delivery, and we are in close partnership with everybody in the
food industry to enhance food safety. CFS is now working full steam ahead to
develop and revamp its information technology systems to achieve better efficiency
and seek improvements in a wide range of functions, including food import
control, surveillance, food incident management and traceability.”

Centre of Food Safety Revealed the Launch of Food Trader Portal Soon

Mr. Tse Lai Chi, Manager of the Centre
for Food Safety, gave details about its soon-to-be-launched “Food Trader
Portal” at the Forum. The Portal can manage matters ranging from the handling
of applications on food import to issuing instructions on food inspection and
sample collection arrangements electronically.

Beneficial to both regulatory authority
and food traders, the Portal allows traders to submit applications and check
status anytime, anywhere, without the need to interface with every single
government department, helping to reduce time and operational cost. The Portal’s
complete and comprehensive database helps the authority to track-and-trace any
food supply sources more quickly and accurately, reinforcing its risk
management operation and realising better damage control. The Portal is part of
the HKSAR Government’s Trade Single Window system, which will be the
Government-wide one-stop online kiosk for trade declaration and customs
clearance.

GS1 HK will cooperate with CFS and
incorporate our platforms to the Portal, providing higher efficiency for CFS’s operations
and facilitating the trade for deployment.

Enterprises Commit to Upholding Food Supply Chain Transparency

The 5^th edition of Quality
Food Traceability Scheme marked the achievement of 20 food-related companies,
among which 7 of them participated for 5 consecutive years. They all
contributed to uplifting the local food safety level, promoting product quality
standard, enhancing food value chain and operation visibility. It also indicates
the increasing importance of food traceability from the perspectives of the
industry and customers. (See
Appendix I for full winner list)

The Scheme is designed to help local
food and food services companies to enhance their track and trace capabilities
along the supply chain, and effectively adopt international standards for their
food management systems thereby boosting consumer’s confidence. Diamond, Gold
and Silver Enterprise Awards are presented to the recognised companies based on
the audit results.

Speaking of the Scheme, Ms. Anna Lin, GS1 HK’s Chief Executive,
commented, “Congratulations to all the Scheme winners, especially to those who won
“5 Consecutive Years’ Award”, they have demonstrated long-term efforts and
commitment in upholding food traceability, elevating the food safety level for
the city. I hope every member in the industry would beef up their traceability
measures, not only to fulfill regulatory requirements, but also help react to
incidents efficiently and boost consumer trust on the brands.”

Ms. May Chung, Chairperson of Hong Kong Food & Beverage Industry
Advisory Board of GS1 HK and General Manager of Nestlé HK Ltd., echoed her
point of view and added, “I believe food safety is a shared responsibility, so it
is important to all of the stakeholders in the community to foster closer
partnerships towards reduced food safety risks, leveraging innovation and
technology. Our Board is looking forward to bringing more F&B stakeholders
together to uplift the food supply chain and safety standards, making a
difference to the city.”

Appendix I —

Quality Food Traceability Scheme 2019 Winner List (in alphabetical order)

Diamond Enterprise Winners

Café de Coral Holdings Ltd. FrieslandCampina (HK) Limited Hop Hing Oils & Fats (HK) Ltd. Maxim’s Caterers Ltd. (Also Scored “5 Consecutive Years’ Award” ) Nestlé Hong Kong Ltd. Sims Trading Co. Ltd. (Also Scored “5 Consecutive Years’ Award” ) Swire Coca-Cola HK (Also Scored “5 Consecutive Years’ Award” ) Tsit Wing International Holdings Ltd. (Also Scored “5 Consecutive Years’ Award” ) Vitasoy International Holdings Ltd. Wyeth Nutrition Hong Kong (Also Scored “5 Consecutive Years’ Award” )

Gold Enterprise Winners

AEON Stores (HK) Co. Ltd. (Also Scored “5 Consecutive Years’ Award” ) DCH Food Mart DCH Logistics Co. Ltd. (Also Scored “5 Consecutive Years’ Award” ) Lorence & Co. Ltd. Sun Fat Heung Food Products Ltd. Tai Luen Coffee Co. Ltd. (New Join) Tong Shun Hing Poultry (HK) Co. Ltd.

Silver Enterprise Winners

Aquaculture Technologies Asia Ltd. New Food Era Co. Ltd. (New Join)

Rich Harvest Agricultural Produce Ltd.

About GS1 Hong Kong

Founded
by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce in 1989, GS1 Hong Kong is the
local chapter of GS1^®, a not-for-profit, standards organisation that
develops and drives adoption of global standards for business to uniquely
identify, accurately capture and automatically share vital information about
products, locations and assets. Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, GS1 has
over 110 national chapters in 150 countries.

GS1
Hong Kong’s mission is to empower business to grow and to improve efficiency,
safety, authenticity and sustainability across multiple sectors and facilitates
commerce connectivity through the provision of a full spectrum of platforms,
solutions and services based on our global standards. We provide a trusted
foundation for accurate, sharable, searchable and linkable data. Our EPC
standard lays the foundation for IoT, powering a range of IoT-based services
and applications. We are helping industry to meet the challenges of
omni-channel commerce and create a seamless
customer experience. By engaging with communities of trading partners, industry
organisations, government, and technology providers, we are fostering a
collaborative ecosystem and aiming for “Smarter Business, Better Life”.

 

Currently,
GS1 Hong Kong has around 8,000 corporate members covering close to 20
industries including retail consumer goods, food and food services, healthcare,
apparel, logistics as well as information and technology.

For more information, please visit www.gs1hk.org.