Government Laboratory

Analytical and Advisory Services Division

Food Safety D Section

About the Section

The Section mainly provides analytical and advisory services to support the Food & Environmental Hygiene Department for the protection of public health and safety and for support of its statutory functions under various regulations and ordinances. Major areas of work include the examination of trace levels of pesticide residues and natural toxins in imported and locally manufactured food samples. Analytical services are also provided to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department for the examination of pesticides in various types of formulated products. Analytical reports produced by the Section are admissible in courts of law as evidence of compliance or otherwise with the legislative requirements.

Responsibilities

The Section helps to implement the following legislations:

Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance
Harmful Substances in Food Regulations
Pesticides Ordinance

Key Personnel

Senior Chemist : Dr. C W Ho (Acting)
(Tel. No.: 2538-2011 E-mail: cwho@govtlab.gov.hk)

Chemist (E-mail address)	Tel. No.
Dr. C C Cheng, Chemist (cccheng@govtlab.gov.hk)	2538-2030
Dr. N W Chung, Chemist (nwchung@govtlab.gov.hk)	2538-2027
Dr. C H Lam, Chemist (chlam@govtlab.gov.hk)	2538-2028

Quality Assurance

Typical percentage of quality control samples analysed: 25%.

This section also participates on a regular basis in the inter-laboratory proficiency testing programmes organized by Central Science Laboratory of UK and Quality Assurance of Information in Marine Environmental Monitoring of UK, etc.

Key Instruments

The following instruments are used routinely by the Section:

Automatic Gel Permeation Chromatograph
Gas Chromatographs with various detectors
High Performance Liquid Chromatographs with various detectors
Liquid Chromatograph with tandem Mass Spectrometer

Targets and Key Indicators

Key Performance Measures Relating to the Statutory Testing of Food Samples and Pesticide Formulation Samples

Targets

Testing of Samples*	Targets	2006 (Actual)	2007 (Actual)	2008 (Plan)
Samples relating to food poisoning within 1 working day (%)	100	100	100	100
Food samples for regulatory compliance purposes within target reporting time averaging 19 working days (%)	95	98	97	95
Pesticide formulation samples within target reporting time averaging 38 working days (%)	93#	95	100	93

*	Different samples require different analytical procedures, thus different target reporting time applies. The quoted number of working days required represents an average of target reporting time for the different samples within the category.
#	The target has been revised from 90% to 93% with effect from 2008.

Key Indicators

Key Indicators for Statutory Testing of Samples ^#

Tests Performed on Samples	2006 (Actual)	2007 (Actual)	2008 (Estimate)
Food samples for regulatory compliance purposes	112,421	158,735	130,000
Pesticide formulation samples	299	62	200

#	It is the total number of tests conducted by the Food Safety A to E Sections.

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